Probate/intestacy stalemate query

madbadrob

Has I said its time to pass this to the law society.
Rob

posttokev

madbadrob wrote: »

Has I said its time to pass this to the law society.
Rob

The email's being written as I speak... (And to the Legal Ombudsman too.)

posttokev

The Law Society seems to direct me to the Legal Ombudsman. I take it the Law Society don't deal with complaints directly then?

Land_Registry

This link may help - it is probably the Solicitors Regulation Authority you need

The Law Society represents solicitors in England & Wales

madbadrob

The law society used to be who you wrote to and I wasn't aware an Ombudsman had been set up so yes that would be the way to go.

Rob

posttokev

Thanks for that. Further to my posts of yesterday, we have now had a response from the other party's solicitor which yet again fails to address all the points we had raised and yet again fails to provide the Will file.

This response does however address a claim made by my uncle (he other party) in his original witness statement that, when my grandmother’s will was allegedly stolen, she contacted her solicitors (this is the same firm that acts for my uncle) by phone to inform them but was not advised by them that she would be required to make a new Will as the copy they retained would not suffice.

Despite allowing my uncle to make this claim in his witness statement, his solicitors now state that they have no record of this phone call. I take the view that they have failed to keep proper records and/or have allowed the other party to make a false claim within his witness statement as regards this phone call.

Regardless, it's all still being dragged out more and more, with the costs mounting up all the while...

madbadrob

They are covering their backsides from a claim of negligence. What witness statement are you referring to? If one to the police then why would the solicitor even know about it?

Rob

posttokev

madbadrob wrote: »

They are covering their backsides from a claim of negligence. What witness statement are you referring to? If one to the police then why would the solicitor even know about it?

Rob

This is absolutely what they're doing, I feel. There's an update, which I'll post below shortly.

My uncle originally put forward (via his solicitor) witness statements from himself and some of his family and neighbours, all singing from the same hymn sheet (some almost word for word), supporting his case, outlining supposed events and testifying that my grandmother wanted everything she had to go to him.

posttokev

The latest is that my uncle's solicitor has replied, stating that they do not accept a point which has never actually been made by us (an attempt to muddy the water and act as a diversion from their negligence?) and "in the circumstances we do not see the relevance of disclosure of our file of papers other than by way of a fishing expedition."

In short, yet again, they refuse to disclose the Will file.

They also say again that they look forward to receiving my mother's Defence, despite us saying a number of times that we cannot file a defence until we have sight of all the necessary documentation, namely the Will file.

Her solicitor has responded citing Larke v Nugus and giving a deadline of Monday at 16:00 for the Will file to be disclosed, otherwise we will immediately make a court order for Disclosure with the cost paid on an indemnity basis by my uncle's solicitor's firm.

And so it goes on. In a word: unbelievable.

RAS

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/advice/practice-notes/disputed-wills/ refers to Larke v Nugus