I need to solicitor to serve a LBA ( Letter Before Action )

Ehi

Hello
quick advise

I have used AI to draft a Letter Before Action (And gotten tonnes of advice from citizens advice and which solicitors), based on consumer law, a myriad of evidence and SAR (Subject Access request) Files, so its a hands down win. I dont want to go into details, but politely seeking advice. As I want a solicitor to serve it on my behalf

I was asked to search on https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/ But its too cumbersome

The few I came across, are quoting over £1,000. One quoted £480

Has anyone done such before and any advice on this ?

Please be polite, many thanks
E

la531983

Do it yourself?

Cost = the price of a stamp at most.

If its a slam dunk dont be wasting hundreds of pounds on getting someone else to draft a letter. Plenty of templates online.

GingerTim

And don't rely on AI to get the legalities right, as a number of lazy legal professionals have found out (to their cost).

Voyager2002

Serve simply means to give someone a legal document. In case of a Letter Before Action, so long as you are confident that you know the current address, all that you need to do is take it to a post office, apply a stamp, and get proof of posting. 

I would be very glad to do that for you for a little less than your best quoted price (£480).

MyRealNameToo

Ehi said:

I have used AI to draft a Letter Before Action (And gotten tonnes of advice from citizens advice and which solicitors), based on consumer law, a myriad of evidence and SAR (Subject Access request) Files, so its a hands down win. I dont want to go into details, but politely seeking advice. As I want a solicitor to serve it on my behalf

I was asked to search on https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/ But its too cumbersome

The few I came across, are quoting over £1,000. One quoted £480

Has anyone done such before and any advice on this ?

Sent many LBAs before, never used a solicitor. 

If you have Legal Expenses cover on your Home insurance then they may be able to advise and may even take on the case depending if the matter relates to an area of law the policy covers however most require you to have sent the LBA and its timescales expired before they will consider take on handling the case. 

You'll get a senior associate/junior partner for £400/hr + VAT (£480) and possibly a bit less. They won't want or need your AI letter but should draft their own which will depend on the complexity of the issue as they will need to spend time with you to understand the circumstances, setup the file, draft it, proof read it and send it. You will then incur more costs if the third party replies. 

Ehi

Voyager2002 said:

Serve simply means to give someone a legal document. In case of a Letter Before Action, so long as you are confident that you know the current address, all that you need to do is take it to a post office, apply a stamp, and get proof of posting. 

I would be very glad to do that for you for a little less than your best quoted price (£480).

Quite interesting

A lot said, I was hoping to get it served, so there would be a clause that says, legal expenses included and the company concerned's legal department would not want me to bully poor me when it comes to negotiations and also to give them the impression that I am ready to head to courts, to maximize my expenses claim

The first one, I did in 2019. I served myself and won, but they refused compensation and then I got the ombudsman invovled and it was too late

MyRealNameToo

Ehi said:

Voyager2002 said:

Serve simply means to give someone a legal document. In case of a Letter Before Action, so long as you are confident that you know the current address, all that you need to do is take it to a post office, apply a stamp, and get proof of posting. 

I would be very glad to do that for you for a little less than your best quoted price (£480).

Quite interesting

A lot said, I was hoping to get it served, so there would be a clause that says, legal expenses included and the company concerned's legal department would not want me to bully poor me when it comes to negotiations and also to give them the impression that I am ready to head to courts, to maximize my expenses claim

The first one, I did in 2019. I served myself and won, but they refused compensation and then I got the ombudsman invovled and it was too late

Unless your claim is over £10,000 it will go to small track in which case legal costs are your own to pay. Even if it's up to £25,000 it only makes it into Fast Track which is fixed legal costs and frequently will be below what has been incurred.  This is why with solicitors working on conditional funding agreement take a significant proportion of your winnings because what can be claimed from the defendant doesnt cover it. 

The one you did doesnt make sense, if you went to court and won then an ombudsman won't touch it because courts are higher than ombudsman. Once you have a court award you have 6 years for enforcement. 

ThumbRemote

Ehi said:

Voyager2002 said:

Serve simply means to give someone a legal document. In case of a Letter Before Action, so long as you are confident that you know the current address, all that you need to do is take it to a post office, apply a stamp, and get proof of posting. 

I would be very glad to do that for you for a little less than your best quoted price (£480).

Quite interesting

A lot said, I was hoping to get it served, so there would be a clause that says, legal expenses included and the company concerned's legal department would not want me to bully poor me when it comes to negotiations and also to give them the impression that I am ready to head to courts, to maximize my expenses claim

The first one, I did in 2019. I served myself and won, but they refused compensation and then I got the ombudsman invovled and it was too late

This makes no sense. Sending via a solicitor when you've written the letter is just going to confuse matters, and as mentioned above you're unlikely to be able to claim legal costs. 

Just post it with a proof of posting. 

eskbanker

Ehi said:

A lot said, I was hoping to get it served, so there would be a clause that says, legal expenses included and the company concerned's legal department would not want me to bully poor me when it comes to negotiations and also to give them the impression that I am ready to head to courts, to maximize my expenses claim

The purpose of a letter before action is to encourage the recipient to deliver what they've failed to do, in order to resolve a dispute, while also putting them on notice that the sender is prepared to pursue the matter via the courts - it doesn't allow the sender to unilaterally define how that court process would work!

GDB2222

For smaller claims, up to £1000 say, a consumer acting for himself has a huge advantage over a commercial organisation that he is suing. He can do the claim in his spare time, and it costs him nothing. From the moment the company receives the letter before action it’s costing them money, as someone is being paid to open the post.

They can ignore the LBA, and companies often do. So, you will probably need to take the next step and actually issue proceedings. If tthey ignore that then you win by default. If they want to defend then it really starts costing them lots in professional fees or in-house expertise. Meanwhile, you’re just expending your spare time. So, usually, they’ll pay up, unless they think your case is fraudulent in some way. 

So, man up (or woman up, as the case may be) and get started.

Ehi

GDB2222 said:

For smaller claims, up to £1000 say, a consumer acting for himself has a huge advantage over a commercial organisation that he is suing. He can do the claim in his spare time, and it costs him nothing. From the moment the company receives the letter before action it’s costing them money, as someone is being paid to open the post.

They can ignore the LBA, and companies often do. So, you will probably need to take the next step and actually issue proceedings. If tthey ignore that then you win by default. If they want to defend then it really starts costing them lots in professional fees or in-house expertise. Meanwhile, you’re just expending your spare time. So, usually, they’ll pay up, unless they think your case is fraudulent in some way. 

So, man up (or woman up, as the case may be) and get started.

Thank you. I was called by a number of solicitors, when I asked online demanding £500 to £1,600. And based on your advise, I would post it this week, I still need a bit more clarifications

MyRealNameToo said:

Unless your claim is over £10,000 it will go to small track in which case legal costs are your own to pay. Even if it's up to £25,000 it only makes it into Fast Track which is fixed legal costs and frequently will be below what has been incurred.  This is why with solicitors working on conditional funding agreement take a significant proportion of your winnings because what can be claimed from the defendant doesnt cover it. 

The one you did doesnt make sense, if you went to court and won then an ombudsman won't touch it because courts are higher than ombudsman. Once you have a court award you have 6 years for enforcement. 

I have paid about £16,000 to date. 

So how does that work in a small claims court ?