Our solicitor has been Suspended !!!!!

pamela1949

Help Please

My OHs mother died in December 2010. We appointed a solicitor in Jan 2011 to do probate and then house conveyancing.

Just read on Law Society Gazette that our Solicitor has just been struck off for 2 years.

We are in advanced stages with house sale... dont know where probate is at.

They have original will and also title deeds to house.

We are at our wits end .. what can we do

Thank you for any advice we are aat our wits end

Savvy_Sue

Phone Law Society first thing tomorrow and ask them, there must be a way of dealing with this situation!

mjmal51

Had problems with a firm in the past that were shut down, contacted the SRA to sort out
http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/consumers.page

MrandMrsB

You definitely need to contact the SRA who will have appointed an agent (a solicitor from a local firm) to sort the mess out. Mr B was a solicitor with an unblemished track record until he retired last month, therefore he has done this difficult job a few times.

I do sympathise - it must be a nightmare. Mr B wishes he could help in some way.

Our best wishes.

MrandMrsB

PS Please let us know how you get on.

pamela1949

Thank you so much Mrand MrsB!!!

We solicitor is gong to appeal so he is still in business at the moment.

We have contacted the SRA who have indeed stated what you have said.

We will have to stay with this one atm... as stuff is at a fairly advanced stage. I guess we would also have to pay him if we went to another solicitor at this time.

This has been a nightmare.. at the outset my husbands co executor wouldnt cooperate!!! That was sorted about 3 weeks ago and now this!!

Thanks for your interest.

MrandMrsB

How are you getting on? Do you know what the solicitor is supposed to have done wrong? Do you trust him / her? You would be shocked at how many crooked solicitors there are out there! If I knew this solicitor's name I wonder if Mr B could find out.

Mr B's former colleague / friend has had a really difficult time: he was a salaried partner in a firm and the owner of the firm stole clients' money, so he was jointly responsible for the theft (so unfair). He thought it could not possibly happen a second time, so he became a salaried partner in another local firm, but this time it was far worse: the partner stole a huge amount of money. This partner was driving around in a posh car, and kept his home, whereas our friend (and family) lost everything: his home, most of his possessions, his health.....in fact he had such a bad breakdown that he ended up in a hospital. Then he decided to find a normal job with a firm and they are crooks too - hope he reports them when he eventually leaves. What I do not understand is why those common or garden thieves are not imprisoned.....they always get away with it in our part of the country anyway!

Do be careful. The SRA does not suspend solicitors for no reason, in fact if they did their job there would probably be very few solicitors left! (It's a bit like "CORGI - registered" plumbers - not sure what they are called nowadays. I had an empty terraced property that I used to let out, and the plumber "forgot" to turn off the gas supply as I had requested, and because he had not done the job properly there was a gas leak in the property - there was another problem as well - but CORGI was not interested!!!!) Have you had a price for the whole job? I guess you could ask to pay a pro rata rate. Just keep an eye on him / her. If he / she is seling the house make sure he does not make a mess of it. You don't want more hassle.......

Take care.

newleaf

When our solicitors was closed down by the Law Society we received a letter from another solicitors in a neighbouring town who had been asked to take over matters in progress. We weren't at all surprised they got closed down, as we had already concluded they were dodgy, but no-one would tell us why they had been busted.

mjmal51

MrandMrsB wrote: »

You would be shocked at how many crooked solicitors there are out there!
.

If it is bad now then just wait until October when the "Tesco Law" comes in and non legal people can own Solicitors Companies. Seems to be ideal for crooks.
http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/ofr/we-are-changing.page

MrandMrsB

mjmal51 wrote: »

If it is bad now then just wait until October when the "Tesco Law" comes in and non legal people can own Solicitors Companies. Seems to be ideal for crooks.
http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/ofr/we-are-changing.page

Exactly! It will bring more work in for solicitors - not joking either. Same with DIY wills that people think saves money, but what they don't always realise is that wills are very complex these days because of cohabitation, divorce, step families, governments have made our financial lives extremely complicated, they chop and change legislation constantly......I know many solicitors are incompetent but Tesco is going to be far worse.

WhiteHorse

Read the SRA disciplinary pages on their website. Fascinating.