solicitors have gone bankrupt

stressedout75

hi, im not sure if im posting this on the correct forum but here goes, my husband was using the same solicitor for 4 years due to a custody battle over his two children with his ex wife, this all started in November 2007, and ended in July 2009, he had been invoiced for £4700 as a total for the services he had used, the accountants at the time said that he could pay them a monthly sum so he waited to hear from them and never did, in jan 2010 he received a certificate for legal aid which he presumed had covered him for the services which is why he had not been chased for the outstanding sum, he was then told a few months later by a former secretary that the solicitors had gone into receivership so that any money that he may or not have owed would have been wiped off, 2 1/2 years later, today we have received a letter from an accountant acting on behalf of the former solicitor demanding the sum of £4700 to be paid by chq within 14 days, where do we stand we just dont have that kind of money , please can someone shed some light on this awful situation.

WestonDave

Any work done before the legal aid certificate will not be covered by it retrospectively so it depends on the issue date on the certificate. If its Jan 2010 then the £4700 predates it and is a due debt. It is likely you are now being chased by the liquidators. Unfortunately the passing of this short period of time does not make the debt disappear or get wiped off.

That said liquidators are not debt collectors and unlike the latter don't have a direct interest in how much is collected beyond professionalism. If you can't pay then its not worth them spending out on court fees etc to collect it - typically in liquidations a lot does get written off.

The time for disputing the invoices is long gone, so it will really be a question of negotiating with the liquidators to pay what you can. Always worth starting low - but be warned they may require you to show information about income etc to evidence why you can't pay more.

stressedout75

thankyou for your advice I am going out of my mind of how we are going to be able to pay it back, on reflection the certificate that he received in Jan 2010 was just issued he did not even apply for the legal aid and at the time when he received it he was shocked by it which is why we havent worried too much about it, so im wondering if he would have been covered beforehand as well, this seems like such a mess right now, as we are not use to having to deal with such matters.

stressedout75

i forgot to mention that the accountants who sent the letter today were appointed the trustee of the solictor on 24th August 2010, so why has it taken so much time to contact us surely they cant expect a payment if full in the next 14 days?can they? and do you know what as well the case was for custdy of two children agains a drunken mother who got joint custody and then after 1 month the court granted this she messed up big time and the boys have lived with us since which was down to social services recommendations with no court involved! what a joke huh!

NeverAgain_2

Family lawyers make good money, generally more than criminal ones, so it's a good effort for this guy to go bankrupt.

As has been said, the passage of time doesn't help you, and what the bill was for is irrelevant.

Your only hope is the legal aid certificate is retrospective, I've seen them granted in the criminal courts to include work done at earlier hearings.

But I doubt your certificate does apply, because if it did, the solicitor would have claimed the money already.

stressedout75

at never again

are you saying simply then that we dont have a leg to stand on and will owe the whole amount and do you think we would be able to come to some sort of repayment plan as they asking for £4700 within 14 days which we just do not have, my husband works im a housewife and have 3 children?

NeverAgain_2

I can't say for sure you have no leg to stand on.

Nothing to stop you asking the liquidator to prove the debt, mentioning that you had a legal aid certificate.

The solicitor's affairs will be in a mess, so he may have claimed the bill on legal aid, but if the liquidator is doing his job right, he will have checked that which is why he is chasing you.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the 'within 14 days', the bill was due from the moment it was sent, and that remains the case.

It's just a matter of if, when and how much of it is settled.

As regards settlement, WestonDave (above) says it all really.