Who pays for solicitor errors?

I'm helping my cousin with his input to the "Statement of Information" document needed to go with the Consent Order for his divorce.

He sent the original completed document to his solicitor, who sent it on to his wife's solicitor. Those solicitors decided to retype the whole thing, but got my cousin's DOB & address wrong. They also used an old version of Consent Order, so previous corrections were no longer included. They sent these back to my cousin's solicitors, who didn't spot the changes. They then sent the documents onto him, at which point he spotted the errors.

So currently my cousin is being charged by his own solicitor for "checking" these documents - (they did not spot the DOB error & other errors in either document). He's also being charged for the emails back and forth to clarify what happened.

Presumably the other solicitor will be charging his wife for retyping the Statement of Information & using the wrong level of Consent order.

Is it worth my cousin asking the Solicitors to waive these charges? Just asking for advice here, as obviously if he asks his solicitors, they will charge him for reading his email!
It's caused a 3 week delay also, which is not helpful.


Thank you

Comments

  • TBagpuss
    TBagpuss Posts: 11,198
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    He can asked them to waive those charges, or alternatively, to not charge for re-checking them once the corrections are made.
    Whether or not they agree may depend on them, but also on whether there were other issues that were spotted, and/or other points dealt with in the coresspondence (i.e. did it actually cost him any more or would the time have ben needed in any event)
    All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)
  • LadyDee
    LadyDee Posts: 4,293
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    Of course he shouldn't be paying for the Solicitor's mistakes. If they refuse to waive the charge then wait until you get the final bill and apply for it to be "taxed" by the Court, when they'll have to justify every penny they are charging.
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,244
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    LadyDee wrote: »
    Of course he shouldn't be paying for the Solicitor's mistakes. If they refuse to waive the charge then wait until you get the final bill and apply for it to be "taxed" by the Court, when they'll have to justify every penny they are charging.


    Note that there is a fee for the final bill to be "taxed".



    If the solicitors charge a fixed amount for reading each email then he could perhaps wait until he needs to send another email and then include a request to waive the charges as a second point in it.
  • Hi, thanks for this advice.
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