Can solicitor insist on signature to say 500 page document contents digested and understood?

AskAsk

user1977 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

PlymBob said:

My solicitor has stated: “You cannot rely on myself to make sure everything is correct as you have stated below. Of course it is our job to advise you, but everyone has a subjective/different views on matters and that cannot be accounted for by myself when reporting to you. A clause in a lease that is satisfactory to one Client may not be to another for example.  

It is for that reason that we produce all of the relevant documents for you and then guide you through them with your actual report.”

That has some logic.

Only to an extent. Yes, clients may have different views on some things, but this the solicitor's bread and butter - they can and should be providing guidance about which clauses are archaic or superseded, which ones are perfectly normal even if they sound a bit restrictive, which ones are weird, and which ones should be there but aren't.

It's possible that 100 of the 500 pages are archaic or relate to other parts of the estate and can be completely ignored. So advising the client to read everything could be nonsense.

And getting a client to sign a statement saying they've read and understood everything isn't going to get a negligent solicitor out of a hole, should it transpire that they failed to bring something important to the client's attention.

my solicitor failed to look into the fact that there was a service charge on the property I bought and I was billed for backdated service charges for 6 years.  she also sent me the property deeds that was missing the page about the service charge and yet the ombudsman determined she only had to pay me £500 compensation.

don't rely on solicitors paying out for negligence.  they all protect each other, like the NHS.

user1977

HobgoblinBT said:

I wonder how much your solicitor would add to your fees in order to read 500 pages at say £350 per hour?

I don't think the solicitor has suggested that they haven't read the stuff...that really would be pushing the boundaries of laziness.

EssexHebridean

user1977 said:

HobgoblinBT said:

I wonder how much your solicitor would add to your fees in order to read 500 pages at say £350 per hour?

I don't think the solicitor has suggested that they haven't read the stuff...that really would be pushing the boundaries of laziness.

*taps fingers and waits for someone to come along with another tired old blanket statement about all solicitors being lazy...*  

AskAsk

user1977 said:

HobgoblinBT said:

I wonder how much your solicitor would add to your fees in order to read 500 pages at say £350 per hour?

I don't think the solicitor has suggested that they haven't read the stuff...that really would be pushing the boundaries of laziness.

in reality they haven't.  i have had to point out things to my solicitor from the TA6 and TA10 that were wrong, which they would have picked up if they had bothered to read them!