Solicitors abusing the Court System to earn fees

kaznelson

I am a small business owner who provided a for a Solicitor but unfortunately the company never paid for the service.  As a last resort we entered a County Court Claim against the Solicitors.

Move forward to this year and due to Covid all of our staff, including myself, were furloughed for a short period.   As per the Government guidelines we were not allowed to perform any business work during this period.   Post was collected weekly. 

I returned to work on the 14th September 2020 and received communication from the County Court at Central London that we had not responded to communication sent but not received during furlough and  that our Claim had been struck out and we had to pay the Solicitors Fees.  We contacted the solicitor yesterday who advised that their costs were £4800.00 for defending a £2000 claim. 

 

I understand that costs have been incurred but I believe it unfair that the County Court can make such rulings knowing that businesses were in furlough.  In addition they have given the Solicitor free reign to charge a fee that we have no way to defend!!

 

Surely this is wrong that the Courts have been making decisions which go against the Governments Furlough guidance!   If we work during furlough we are breaking the rules but the District Judges are punishing us for not working!

 

I’m sure we are not the only person who is being taken advantage of by unscrupulous solicitors who are using this loophole in the Court System!

Thrugelmir

Somebody must have been working for the business during lock down. How was the payroll run for example? 

Diamandis

We're you not able to pick up the mail? How were the furlough payments being applied for without anyone working? 

Grumpy_chap

Even if you were all furloughed, the Directors were permitted to continue their legal obligations.  Once they opened the post and realised there was work to do, they should have unfurloughed themselves to deal with this.  You have probably lost the £2k claim, but the solicitors did have a duty of care to keep their costs to defend in proportion, so that could probably be challenged.  It is always absurdly expensive to claim against a solicitor - you can't really win.

kaznelson

Thank you for your responses.  Payroll is outsourced.

As a small family business we didn't attend the office daily as we lost an inlaw to Covid and my mum died suddenly 6 weeks later.  We were also advised that we could be breakding Furlough rules if we did any work during that period.

Thrugelmir

No-one bothered to collect the post though. For a business that isn't what you'd expect. 

greyteam1959

You didn't open your business mail for nearly 5 months ??
And you knew you had this pending ??

[Deleted User]

You need proper legal advice which you will have to pay for. Realistically it's going to be hard to defend it and come out better off than just paying it.

You could try to get the claim restarted, that's probably your best hope.

kaznelson

Thank you your advice.