Solicitor complaint procedure divorce deducted 'bill' before challenge

s2016

Does anyone have experience of challenging a solicitor bill please? I have been legally aided (divorce) for my case. I wound up with a quarter of what I had sought as my settlement claim in financial proceedings. A bit about me: I am a single lone mother raising a daughter on my own. I have since posting this, learned that I can challenge the bill even though the solicitors have sent payment cheque of £28k to Legal Aid from my low settlement achieved. The firm have said this does not affect my ability to challenge the bill which I am doing as I cannot believe it is that high on Legal Aid. Any divorced folk on here who have experienced a bad solicitor or issues with one please please get in touch. I was already very vulnerable and feel like I have been taken such advantage. Many mistakes have been made such as problems with the financial settlement court order and my needing to go back into court again to chase issues but now without a Legal Aid Bill. They just added disbursments, costs, calls to experts etc without every advising me or taking instruction, charged me for redrafting poorly written letters (which I had to correct) and for meetings where they wanted the same information again even when I had previous sent that information to them (so me sending emails again were double billed..) I have written a complaint. If anyone has advice for me on reducing the bill/ challenging ir or if I have grounds to challenge, please let me know. UPDATE: About banks I think I am OK and won't be double taxed on the money (I was scared I would bee taxed on the lump sum but I believe HMRC don't do that since the money was already taxed during the marriage.)

bris

You need to make your complaint to the law society https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/For-the-public/Using-a-Solicitor/Complaints/
Your thread is hard to understand and certainly to much for this forum to give advice on.


Call the law society and they will advise you of your options.

steampowered

It is difficult to follow your post. I can identify three separate issues, which I comment on below.

ISSUE ONE: BAD SERVICE

You seem to claim that your solicitor offered a bad service. You say that your solicitor "lost the original settlement and just wound up with a quarter of what I had sought".

Why do you think your solicitor did something wrong here?

You are never going to get everything you ask for in a settlement negotiation - any settlement involves both sides compromising.

ISSUE TWO: CHALLENGING THE BILL

Nowhere in your post have you stated why you want to challenge the solicitor's bill. Which part of the bill are you actually disputing?

ISSUE THREE: PAYMENT OF FUNDS

Your solicitor has not done a "bad thing" by paying an amount over £85k into your bank account.

Paying you the settlement money is completely. Being "scared witless" about it is not rational.

The £85k limit you mention is the FSCS scheme limit which protects you against the risk of a bank going insolvent. That is a really tiny risk. The £85k limit is per bank, so if you are still concerned you can open an account with another bank and move some of the money there. Read about it here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings.

s2016

The Law Society does not cover this area. I posted in the hope anyone was able to assist having had a similar experience with Legal Ombudsman or taking it to the court. Thanks for responding but I will keep my fingers crossed that someone who has been through the experience or who has knowledge of it can help and maybe reading. I called the Law Society a while back and they don't advise of options in this area.

steampowered

I read on the government website that you can challenge a solicitor bill but if you pay or part pay the bill before the dispute has been finalised (in court or with legal ombudsman) it will not be looked at in court/ by a judge or by ombudsman. Is this true please?

But you said the solicitor has already deducted his bill from the settlement amount?

If so, the solicitor has already been paid. You are free to challenge the bill if you wish. If your challenge is upheld you would be paid the difference.

This should not affect the rest of the settlement money you were paid. You are free to do what you like with that money.

steampowered

s2016 wrote: »

The Law Society does not cover this area. I posted in the hope anyone was able to assist having had a similar experience with Legal Ombudsman or taking it to the court. Thanks for responding but I will keep my fingers crossed that someone who has been through the experience or who has knowledge of it can help and maybe reading. I called the Law Society a while back and they don't advise of options in this area.

The law society used to handle this sort of thing back in the day, but not anymore.

These days you have two options.

Option 1 is to ask for a copy of the solicitor's complaints policy. You would need to complain to your solicitor first and await their response. If you are not satisfied, you can then complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

The Legal Ombudsman might order the solicitor to reduce their bill, if there is a good reason for ordering that.

Option 2 is to apply to court for what is known as a 'detailed assessment' of the solicitor's bill. This is usually a bad idea. You would need to pay a costs draftsmen to look at the invoice and represent you. If you challenge the bill in court but do not get the bill reduced by 20% or more, you will be liable to pay the solicitor additional costs.

hollydays

As regards the domestic violence, have you spoken to women's aid at length about this?

They could advise about whether his personal conduct would have any bearing on the settlement( possibly it wouldn't).Was there financial abuse?
((((big hugs )))) . You are doing all the right things.
Understand that many " professionals" don't understand domestic abuse.
Possibly too late for you now but Womens aid can put you in touch with solicitors who better understand the complex issues.
Continue to trust your instincts .

agrinnall

s2016 wrote: »

However the amount is over the £85k banks can protect lump sums for so anything over that is not protected and I am att risk.

You're not at risk at all as the FSCS Temporary High Balance scheme covers deposits of up to £1 million for up to 6 months.

https://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/questions-and-answers/qas-about-temporary-high-balances/

s2016

Thank you Hollyday. Your response was kind and much appreciated. I did seek help from WA before proceedings and they helped with support at the time (though in a location four hours to where I am now living as I lived in another part of the country before divorce.) So the divorce is over now and I think I will seriously struggle to reopen a financial settlement. It's rare. But with challenging the solicitor bill - that might be an idea to see if my local WA could help challenge the bill/ many faults in the case. Thank you, thank you thank you. (((hugs back)))

s2016

I will look at this - thanks for posting - very kind of you. However my bank said each indivdual bank was only covered up to £85k. So any more than that, you would need to place any monies over that amount to another bank/ building society in order to keep it protected. I will read and post more on this aspect.

s2016

Hi Steampowered - that is correct - thank you. It's a) complaint procedure via firm and then ombudsman (lengthy and not sure how effective. I've dealt with a financial ombudsman as you know before and it was a waste of time so went to small claims.) If that fails I can go for detailed cost assessment. My low earnings now mean I could possibly qualify for exemptions on court fees but then I would have to go that more aggressive route asap and not the ombudsman route. Both would take a long time. I have no experience in challenging solicitors. Thank you again.