Solicitor on hols - is it in order to contact the opposing party's solicitor direct?

[Fernackapan]

I sent a draft email to our solicitor on Monday that needed to be sent urgently to the other party's solicitor, and have been chasing him all week to see if it has been forwarded. I discovered this morning from phoning his secretary that he is on holiday until the 19 April, but no 'out of office' message was received to my emails. In the circumstances, is it in order for me to send the email direct explaining the position? Thanking you in advance.

[R0b]

You can try, but don't expect a response. Solicitor Code of Conduct says they should not be corresponding with someone where they are aware that they are legally represented.

Suggest you get back on the phone to the law firm and get someone to confirm whether that email was in fact sent, particularly if it was urgent. If there are any consequences for not sending the email then remind them politely that you will be holding the solicitor and the firm responsible if you suffer any losses or expenses as a result of the email not being sent. If you don't get anywhere with that then you may want to consider making a formal complaint and asking for the complaints procedure.

[ULA]

It is normal that someone should be covering your solicitor's work and monitoring their emails whilst they are on holiday and at least dealing with urgent matters that will not wait until their return. In this situation that should have happened.

rob as set out exactly what you need to do.

[Fernackapan]

You can try, but don't expect a response. Solicitor Code of Conduct says they should not be corresponding with someone where they are aware that they are legally represented.

Suggest you get back on the phone to the law firm and get someone to confirm whether that email was in fact sent, particularly if it was urgent. If there are any consequences for not sending the email then remind them politely that you will be holding the solicitor and the firm responsible if you suffer any losses or expenses as a result of the email not being sent. If you don't get anywhere with that then you may want to consider making a formal complaint and asking for the complaints procedure.

Thank you very much for your comments. I don't think I have explained myself clearly. I was thinking of sending the email to the Claimant's legal representative, not directly to the Claimant. Would that still be unacceptable?

[atticus]

I think everyone who replied understood perfectly what you meant by the opposing party's solicitor. You have been given good advice!

[Fernackapan]

It is normal that someone should be covering your solicitor's work and monitoring their emails whilst they are on holiday and at least dealing with urgent matters that will not wait until their return. In this situation that should have happened.

rob as set out exactly what you need to do.

Thank you for your prompt reply. I have been on to our solicitor's secretary and she says she has passed my emails to another solicitor in the practice. Hopefully, someone will get back to me, but if not I think I am going to have to take a chance and send the email to the Claimant's legal representative as my concern is that we will be accused of holding matters up if nothing gets done until our solicitor gets back from holiday.