Barrister finds response to LBA 8 months later

[Daniel Edney]

Hi,

October 2022, LBA sent to ex business partner for breach of fiduciary duties as she stole my business from me. May 2023 my boyfriend gets arrested for harassment for asking on multiple occasions where my share of the business is. June 2023 London county court serves injunction on me and my boyfriend. Not to approach claimants. In particulars of claim claimant states they replied to LBA with an email. Today we called chambers and they searched inbox and stated that yes they did email back. That they are sorry and barrister wil be in touch….. is this gross misconduct?

Thank you, any help appreciated. I’m 7k in, in legal fees, lost my business and on benefits for 6 months. And boyfriend charged and trial date set. Tough times.

[echat11]

Hi DE

Welcome to LB

You might want to ask Admin to change your user name.

You mean is this 'negligence', sounds like an administration error.

No doubt other members will advise.

[atticus]

Please explain the role of the barrister, and why the email was sent to him/her.

[Daniel Edney]

The role of the barrister (direct access) was to send the LBA. I think it will be blamed as a clerk error. The email that was sent by my ex business partner went something like this “ thank you for your letter, acknowledged, recieved by post, may I ask whom I should respond to as this letter was sent by council, and not a solicitor. In order for us to comply with cpr”

just about who it should be addressed to. Happy to send documents privately if anyone wanted to take a look :/

[islandgirl]

Why was it left so long to chase the barrister to see if there had been a reply?

[Daniel Edney]

Last month my boyfriend was arrested for section 4a causing alarm and distress after he approached my ex business partner. He was charged and trial date is 11th July. Last week an injunction was served through the high court. In their particulars of claim they state that that had replied to our LBA. We clarified today that it was in fact replied but the clerks did not notice. Obviously we stopped asking our barrister after the 21 day notice period had ended.

[islandgirl]

Thank you. Had the reply been received within the 21 days? Re alarm and distress - presumably he has pleaded not guilty and there will be a magistrates trial. Do you have a solicitor? It will be important to get a statement from the barrister saying that you were not told there had been a reply.

[Daniel Edney]

Hi

yes they did respond 11 days after receiving the LBA. My boyfriend takes full responsibility of his actions but I can’t help get upset that if our barrister and his clerks had done their job correctly then the sequence of events that took place would have been different since the reason he visited them was because they had not come to the table. I’m upset with my barrister but at the same time he is a powerful person who I don’t want to annoy. But they need to be held accountable. Surely a reponce to an LBA is a vital step in mediation?

[islandgirl]

Can you tell us please if there is going to be a trial of your boyfriend at the mags court? Clearly the issue of the barrister not passing on the info is going to be part of his defence? Depends however whether his actions that led to the harassment allegation were reasonable or crossed a line.

[atticus]

DE: I have 2 questions -

1. Have you looked at the chambers' complaints procedure?

2. Can you explain how things might have been different if the reply had been passed to you promptly on receipt of the email.

[Daniel Edney]

Island girl - hi, yes trial is on the 11th of July and if found guilty he will loose his tenancy with his housing association.

atticus - I think the issue is, and forgive my ignorance - the email not being picked up doesn’t absolve his actions. We are quite confident he will be found guilty since it’s in magistrates and ‘alarm and distress’ are subjective. Especially in the pc world we live in today. Things would have played out differently because there would have been a level of respect in the sense that we would have known that they were willing to follow cpr and come to the legal table as it were.

but 6 months later after being lead by out barrister to belive that there was no formal responce my partner lost his temper and approached them at the salon.

will look at complaints procedure now

[Daniel Edney]

What should I expect from a barrister in this situation. An apology? A refund? To draft our counter claim for free as compensation?

[atticus]

Can you explain how things might have been different if the reply had been passed to you promptly on receipt of the email?

[islandgirl]

Island girl - hi, yes trial is on the 11th of July and if found guilty he will loose his tenancy with his housing association.

atticus - I think the issue is, and forgive my ignorance - the email not being picked up doesn’t absolve his actions. We are quite confident he will be found guilty since it’s in magistrates and ‘alarm and distress’ are subjective. Especially in the pc world we live in today. Things would have played out differently because there would have been a level of respect in the sense that we would have known that they were willing to follow cpr and come to the legal table as it were.

but 6 months later after being lead by out barrister to belive that there was no formal responce my partner lost his temper and approached them at the salon.

will look at complaints procedure now

As a magistrate it depends what he did. You MUST have a solicitor for the trial. You will need to bring all the issues up to explain his actions and PROVE what you assert about the lost reply. So much hinges on this - you need to be represented. It depends also on witnesses or is it "he said she said". You can make the case that it is a malicious complaint and that although you were upset and angry it was not as bad as they say (if that is true)

[Daniel Edney]

So you’re a magistrate yourself? Do you think I should write a statement explaining the email issue? I can prove it has I have emails from both my barrister saying that that have not replied and I also have the exhibit from my civil injunction case where the claimant has proved that they emailed back to the LBA. It all just feels so messy I called the legal ombudsman today and they said that if barrister doesn’t accept his fault and make it right they would certainly take on the complaint. So that’s some good news as that cost me £3000. Thank yo For your advice so far. Also there are no witnesses. Just my bf and the claimant were present.