Recovering solicitors fees from the CSA

Roy_G_Biv

Hello, I had a long-standing dispute with the CSA until 2009 when the tribunal revoked a liability and ordered them to correct and pay back maintenance I had been overcharged.

I had to hire a solicitor to get the CSA to cooperate and a further year to get the money, but this left me with an unpaid solicitors bill of £4500 inc VAT. I have written to the CSA asking they pay it but they just ignored my letters, now say they will not be contributing towards my solicitors fees.

I think this is unfair considering I wouldn't have needed a solicitor if the CSA cooperated and did the maintenance correctly when I asked them to.

What are my options?

welshmoneylover

Roy_G_Biv wrote: »

Hello, I had a long-standing dispute with the CSA until 2009 when the tribunal revoked a liability and ordered them to correct and pay back maintenance I had been overcharged.

I had to hire a solicitor to get the CSA to cooperate and a further year to get the money, but this left me with an unpaid solicitors bill of £4500 inc VAT. I have written to the CSA asking they pay it but they just ignored my letters, now say they will not be contributing towards my solicitors fees.

I think this is unfair considering I wouldn't have needed a solicitor if the CSA cooperated and did the maintenance correctly when I asked them to.

What are my options?

I would have thought your only option is to pay the solicitor. After all, it was you who instructed them and they quite rightly want paying.

Roy_G_Biv

It was the CSA's choice not to comply with its rules.

I never had a choice.

DUTR

Roy_G_Biv wrote: »

It was the CSA's choice not to comply with its rules.

I never had a choice.

Doing the maths how long would the over paying equate to £4500?
The solicitor could have instructed that the defandant meets the costs at the time of court.

Roy_G_Biv

no court case, it was a tribunal and procudure doesnt provide for a party to ask for costs.

Why pay it when it was the CSA's fault?

CSA_Help

I dont think there is something in the legislation (joke book) that allows you to recover legal costs from them but they can against you. Have you tried going through the independant case examiner and this will probably get you some compensation for financial redress (unreasonable requests from yourself that they never acted on) etc etc. Sometimes its the tribunals fault also in the lenght of time it takes to dish out decision notices.

Roy_G_Biv

There is legislation, and its how I won the case. I did it via the Fraud Act route where a CSA official lied to cover for another and were caught. The CSA agreed to settle, the alternative was a criminal investigation, if that resulted in a conviction, it opened the door to a claim for damages using the Civil Procedure Rules.

The avenues currently are:

1. Civil claim via the Parliamentary Ombudsman
2. Back to Criminal Investigation then civil claim, (means exposing a corrupt civil servant then sueing them)
3. Independent Case Examiner - misfeasance route.
4. Throw more money at the legal profession and recover it afterwords with another claim ad-infinitum.

Does anyone have any experience in recovering damages from the CSA.

CSA_Help

Roy_G_Biv wrote: »

There is legislation, and its how I won the case. I did it via the Fraud Act route where a CSA official lied to cover for another and were caught. The CSA agreed to settle, the alternative was a criminal investigation, if that resulted in a conviction, it opened the door to a claim for damages using the Civil Procedure Rules.

The avenues currently are:

1. Civil claim via the Parliamentary Ombudsman
2. Back to Criminal Investigation then civil claim, (means exposing a corrupt civil servant then sueing them)
3. Independent Case Examiner - misfeasance route.
4. Throw more money at the legal profession and recover it afterwords with another claim ad-infinitum.

Does anyone have any experience in recovering damages from the CSA.

If you won against them at tribunal then they should have followed the tribunals directions. You could have went back to the tribunal.
What was the case for out of interest

Roy_G_Biv

Tribunals direction was the CSA correct the assessment so it is compliant to child support legislation and based on the facts received and acknowledged by them.

Blob

You could try a Small Claim through the Courts, there is a fee and that can be claimed back as part of your claim.

Roy_G_Biv

The CSA is a government body and cannot be litigated using the Small Claims Court. Even if I could, there is no means to enforce payment.