Solicitor Mess up resulted in a CCJ

Hellfire8

So this is a bit of an odd one but I feel it would sit here best maybe. if not feel free to move.

So I had a car accident in October, My fault, minor bump, I held my hands up straight away

This is the last they updated me about, the rest of the facts I did not find out till much later

My insurance paid out for the repairs (a bumper & crash bar) however they disputed 9 days of car hire chargers from the other side as being unreasonable.

They passed the file over to their solicitors to deal with the claim and this is where things went very very wrong.

Timeline as followed (from a document provided by the firm)

18/01/2016 - Proceedings Issued
21/01/2016 - Proceedings deemed served.
25/01/2016 - File opened by Solicitors
04/02/2016 - Acknowledgement of service due
09/02/2016 - Email from claimant solcitors including Notice of issue and draft proceedings
15/03/2016 - Default judgement awarded against me as no acknowledgment of service given

I became aware of this on the 11th April when I received a copy of my credit report and the CCJ appeared on my file. I spent over two hours trying to find out who had issued the CCJ which I later found out from the court. Note I had not been made aware of any of this by either the solicitors or the insurance company.

Back and forth between the solicitors and the courts as well as my insurance company. The solicitors arranged for a consent order agreed to by the claimant to set the judgement aside.

Their first attempt at this failed as the documents were incorrect when sent to court, they failed to date the consent order,

They finally succeeded and it was set aside on the 18th May, Over two months after it was issued.

It's been extremely stressful for me as I have been in the middle of a house purchase and getting a mortgage, which this could have caused a massive issue with. I was worried about loosing the house, sleepless nights and the amount of effort I had to put in chasing the solicitors and the courts.

The insurance company offered £300.00 compensation, which I accepted for their role in this, (ie not informing me or keeping me updated)

The solicitors have initially offered £100.00 and raised to £150.00 However this does not even begin to cover the amount of hours I have had to put into resolving this issue which I have down as

2 hours initial research
5.5 hours of E-mails (11 E-mails sent to solicitors and multiple received)
15.5 hours of phone calls to the courts and the solicitors.

Total 22.5 hours, at £16.00 per hour is £360.00 Plus the stress and inconvenienced caused I feel Asking for this cost plus around £140.00 as an apology is ultimately the least I feel would be fair?

What recourse do I have, The solicitors have said I can go to the legal ombudsmen if I wish, I also know I can complain to the SRA regarding the firms conduct (which I have said I will do when I declined their rather insulting £150.00 offer)

Could/should I issue a MCOL claim? or go via Legal Ombudsmen, it's pretty daunting at the prospect of suing a solicitors firm.

Advise would be much appreciated.

fusionx212

Hellfire8 wrote: »

So this is a bit of an odd one but I feel it would sit here best maybe. if not feel free to move.

So I had a car accident in October, My fault, minor bump, I held my hands up straight away

This is the last they updated me about, the rest of the facts I did not find out till much later

My insurance paid out for the repairs (a bumper & crash bar) however they disputed 9 days of car hire chargers from the other side as being unreasonable.

They passed the file over to their solicitors to deal with the claim and this is where things went very very wrong.

Timeline as followed (from a document provided by the firm)

18/01/2016 - Proceedings Issued
21/01/2016 - Proceedings deemed served.
25/01/2016 - File opened by Solicitors
04/02/2016 - Acknowledgement of service due
09/02/2016 - Email from claimant solcitors including Notice of issue and draft proceedings
15/03/2016 - Default judgement awarded against me as no acknowledgment of service given

I became aware of this on the 11th April when I received a copy of my credit report and the CCJ appeared on my file. I spent over two hours trying to find out who had issued the CCJ which I later found out from the court. Note I had not been made aware of any of this by either the solicitors or the insurance company.

Back and forth between the solicitors and the courts as well as my insurance company. The solicitors arranged for a consent order agreed to by the claimant to set the judgement aside.

Their first attempt at this failed as the documents were incorrect when sent to court, they failed to date the consent order,

They finally succeeded and it was set aside on the 18th May, Over two months after it was issued.

It's been extremely stressful for me as I have been in the middle of a house purchase and getting a mortgage, which this could have caused a massive issue with. I was worried about loosing the house, sleepless nights and the amount of effort I had to put in chasing the solicitors and the courts.

The insurance company offered £300.00 compensation, which I accepted for their role in this, (ie not informing me or keeping me updated)

The solicitors have initially offered £100.00 and raised to £150.00 However this does not even begin to cover the amount of hours I have had to put into resolving this issue which I have down as

2 hours initial research
5.5 hours of E-mails (11 E-mails sent to solicitors and multiple received)
15.5 hours of phone calls to the courts and the solicitors.

Total 22.5 hours, at £16.00 per hour is £360.00 Plus the stress and inconvenienced caused I feel Asking for this cost plus around £140.00 as an apology is ultimately the least I feel would be fair?

What recourse do I have, The solicitors have said I can go to the legal ombudsmen if I wish, I also know I can complain to the SRA regarding the firms conduct (which I have said I will do when I declined their rather insulting £150.00 offer)

Could/should I issue a MCOL claim? or go via Legal Ombudsmen, it's pretty daunting at the prospect of suing a solicitors firm.

Advise would be much appreciated.

using the ombudsman may get you what you but the ombudsman may just say this was a fair offer they are a bit hit and miss.

National_Debtline

Hi Hellfire,


The complaints process is free so if you are unhappy with their offer then you can escalate to the Legal Ombudsman - it would seem like it is worth exhausting this process before potentially taking your own legal action. But fushionx212 does raise an interesting point that when you take matters to the Ombudsman it is another 'roll of the dice' - there is no guarantee they will agree with you.


If you were to take your own legal action against the solicitors then you would need your own legal advice first, which will potentially cost you more money and then the case will be at the courts discretion. (Again there are no guarantees).


Weigh it all up carefully. Is this situation worth any more of your time? Would you be ok if you spent more time (and money) on it and ultimately lost the compensation offer or worse ended up owing them money because a legal claim went in their favour? Good luck,


Laura
@natdebtline

undaunted

You could try consulting a no win no fee type solicitor regarding a professional negligence claim I guess. However, you appear to have estimated your costs at £360 and want another £140 "compensation" - £500 in total. You have received £300 from your insurer and been offered £150 by the solicitor. You would therefore be arguing about £50 in effect. Is it really worth the hassle / "gamble" to you?

Thrugelmir

Where do you derive a rate of £16 per hour from. Making phone calls isn't particularly onerous.

undaunted

I believe the Courts will currently accept a rate of £19 p/h as reasonable