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I employed the services of a solicitor 5 years ago to act me on a personal issue, it was costly but i could not deal with it alone. Towards the end of his work and because he had become familiar with my business issues and the possibility of liquidating my business I had a call from him inviting me to a meeting with an insolvency practitioner. I didn't want to attend as I had other intentions but out of courtesy i did. There had been no mention of fees and I recall his words were ''you have nothing to lose!'' I went and listened, but I would not want to go along with their suggestions and left it at that. Some months later I received a bill for 1K - I wrote and questioned and told them I had not been told there would be a charge, and had he said I would simply never had gone! letters passed back and forth, it was pointed out I had signed a contract but this matter was to do with the business and not a personal issue although he made me sign a contract to say I would be liable personally for business account issues also. The letters stopped and a couple of years have gone by then out of the blue a demand letter has surfaced. I cannot afford it, my company was since liquidated. I do not understand why this has resurfaced after such a long ''quiet'' time and need help in how to respond to the demand as they are threatening legal action.They know I am struggling financially and with my health - how can I deal with this bullying?
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Re: Solicitor claim for business liability
Hello Blue - I am so sorry for your situation with which I have every sympathy FWIW. From my personal experience I would say that you would be wise to contact the SRA http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.page and the Legal Ombudsman service http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/ to discuss how to deal with this situation and get redress if at all possible. Good luck! -
Re: Solicitor claim for business liability
I am slightly confused. If you were not consulting him about anything other than personal issues, how did he "make" you sign an agreement for issues that you were not consulting him about? And why would you have signed it?Comment
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Re: Solicitor claim for business liability
Basically I signed a contract for what I believed was for the work he was doing on a personal level. This contract stated I would be personally liable for any fees if not covered by the business. He was covering all eventualities no doubt and I did pay everything personally. I did not expect I would need his services for anything else. To do the work he did he did need an insight of the business. Why didnt he use 2 accounts, and why didnt he explain when he invited me for the meeting there would be a charge? instead of saying ''I would have nothing to lose'' I did write to formally complain back in 2011 and then when it went quiet I assumed they had accepted there was some misunderstanding and moved on. Do I ask them to refer to my previous complaint or begin a fresh one?Originally posted by Eloise01 View PostComment
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Re: Solicitor claim for business liability
Well somebody is going to ask you why you didn't read a legal contract commiting you to fees, so now might be a good time to think about what the answer to that is.
You would certainly have to raise a complaint - starting with the solicitors practice. But I honestly think you are going to struggle with this since (a) you signed a contract stipulating you would pay the bills and (b) it is going to be somewhat difficult to evidence that you had a reasonable expectation that this part of the service was "free". I would suggest that in your complaint you explain everything fully but make sure that they are also aware that there is no money to pay for this anyway. There is no harm in letting them know that they cannot get blood out of a stone, and if there is no money there is no money. The practice may decide that the agrro of wasted resources going through a complaint procedyre isn't worth it. But I can't guarantee that.Comment
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