Civil Case

[melliewinner]

I am currently going through a civil case brought against me by an ex partner, case is for a beneficial interest in my home. Back ground is we were never married and no children together, I purchased my home in my sole name and he has made no financial contributions, he also owns 2 properties of his own, The civil case is ticking along however his solicitor has repeatedly put in applications to attach land registry first was a HR1 declaring we were married, I applied for a copy of the application and the HR 1 was removed. 2nd was a UN1 filled as a mutual agreement again I applied for a copy and this was successfully removed. Now there has been a further 2 more applications made with in 2 days of each other I have applied for copies and await these from land registry. Is this normal ?? Can his solicitor basically lie on these applications?? and can he keep doing this over and over again Thank you for any help received

[R0b]

Sounds a little naughty from the solicitor.

You should keep a record of this as you may well want to use this as evidence of your ex-partner/solicitor's conduct in potentially misleading the court. You don't have to, but I would be inclined to write to the solicitor directly (if it is a firm of solicitors and there is a managing partner copy him/her in too) and explain that you are concerned that the solicitor has been filing what you consider to be false and misleading applications to the Land Registry.

You can make reference to the applications and when asked for a copy of the agreements, they were removed because no evidence was supplied. There is a code of conduct for solicitors and they have a duty to comply with it at all times and you can find that code here. The solicitor may be in breach of the following provisions:

1.2 You do not abuse your position by taking unfair advantage of clients or others.

1.4 You do not mislead or attempt to mislead your clients, the court or others, either by your own acts or omissions or allowing or being complicit in the acts or omissions of others (including your client).

2.2 You do not seek to influence the substance of evidence, including generating false evidence or persuading witnesses to change their evidence.

Certainly arguable that if the solicitor is submitting applications knowing that there is no evidence to support that application, then they could be in breach of one or more of the above provisions. I would put it to the solicitor and explain the solicitor is repeatedly submitting applications to the Land Registry and when challenged, the applications are withdrawn due to lack of evidence. You could point out that you have reason to believe that the solicitor is making these applications knowing that there is no evidence to support them and you consider the solicitor to be in breach of the SRA Code of Conduct. Unless the solicitor agrees to immediately cease making the applications and acknowledge the same by the end of the week, you are minded to report the solicitor to the SRA as well as raising the issue with the court as regards the solicitors attempts to mislead the court.

I'm sure a letter like that would spark a response from the solicitor (or the partner) either agreeing not to submit an application without evidence, or reject your allegations and explain why. Of course if there is no response, then you should absolutely follow it up with a letter to the SRA and confirm to the solicitor that you have done so.

The burden of proof rests with your ex-partner and I suspect the solicitor is trying to add something to the land registry as a way to show proof, so remain vigilant. Also, by sending the letter to the solicitor, it is on record and you will be able to use that in court as part of your evidence. I'm fairly sure the judge presiding over the hearing probably won't take kindly to the solicitor's conduct if indeed they are trying to mislead the court and manipulate the evidence.