Solicitor been employed for 2+ years and earned £10k+ and I'm still none the wiser...

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

I wondered if anyone could advise me please on behalf of a friend.....

Her mother passed away in 2010 and a solicitor dealt with probate without any problems. There was also an issue of financial irregularities in which her mother had been unduly influenced into taking out a partial mortgage against her property.

The solicitors have been dealing with this and investigating for over two years. It has cost around a five figure sum (and continues to mount up), yet nothing seems to have progressed since things started. Her sister gets occasional letters which don’t really explain much. She herself has requested copies of these letters to be sent to her aswell, but they never are.

Last week, they tried many times to chase things up by phone. They kept being told they would be called back but never were, and still have not been.

They feel that enough is enough and want to do something about it but are not sure what path of action would be best.

Please can anyone with any experience in such situations offer any advice as to what would be best to do?

If any further info is needed, please let me know and I’ll ask my not too computer savvy friend.

Cheers

Max

Savvy_Sue

The solicitors will have a complaints policy, suggest you find that (as they almost certainly have a website) and start with a complaint: that they are not being kept informed, that they are not being phoned back, that they are not receiving clear explanations.

Tunstallstoven

Thanks for the advice.... I'll take a look.

I wasn't sure whether it was best for her to use the solicitor's complaints procedure (dealt with "in-house") or to go to some kind of independent ombudsman or regulatory service....

So is in -house the best way to start?

Savvy_Sue

In-house is ALWAYS the best way to start a complaint - normally an outside body won't even look until you have exhausted all internal procedures, and the internal procedure should say where you can go if you're still not satisfied.

zzzLazyDaisy

In house is the only way to start. If you try to by-pass this procedure it will just be referred back. She will have been given a client care letter at the outset, which outlines the complaints procedure and who to address the letter to.

EDIT: cross posted with savvy-sue

NAR

Seagull27 wrote: »

Last week, they tried many times to chase things up by phone. They kept being told they would be called back but never were, and still have not been.
They feel that enough is enough and want to do something about it but are not sure what path of action would be best.

Why don't they make an appointment to go and see the solicitor? They could (in advance) give/send the solicitor a list of matters they want answers to/discussed and make an appointment for say two weeks later.
If they get nowhere then start the complaints procedure.

bryanb

Don't lose sight of the fact that a client INSTRUCTS a solicitor. That is tells them what to do.

fluffymuffy

bryanb wrote: »

Don't lose sight of the fact that a client INSTRUCTS a solicitor. That is tells them what do do.

Yes - but maybe the solicitor was named in the will as executor? and so the client is now deceased. When you instruct a solicitor to be your executor they can charge what they like and take as long as they fancy, as you won't be there to sack them.