Solicitor and barrister

[Me1960]

Hello, we are new to this forum and are unsure where the correct place to post this message is! My husband and I have 2 separate issues going on; 1. We are currently going through the court process of regaining contact with our grandchildren who we have been stopped from seeing by our daughter and her partner. 2. We are having issues with our solicitor and are unsure where to turn. We are going to ask about our solicitor in this post. Our solicitor recommended we have a barrister represent us at a Dispute Resolution Hearing or Interim hearing as well as herself. We paid a considerable amount for this. However we have since been given advice that we did not need a barrister for such a hearing as no evidence was expected to have been given. We have also been told we should not have been charged for both the solicitor and barrister. We have also been billed for an occasion where our daughter (who is unrepresented) phoned our solicitor for advice. We are also being billed for our barrister to have spoken with our daughter and her partner at the DRH. Surely this is not right?! We are refusing to pay the latest bill until we get further information

[EXC]

Re: Solicitor and barrister

I'll ask [MENTION=85500]Peridot[/MENTION] if she can assist.

[Me1960]

Re: Solicitor and barrister

I'll ask @Peridot if she can assist.

Thank you

[Diana M]

Re: Solicitor and barrister

We are having issues with our solicitor and are unsure where to turn. . . . . We are refusing to pay the latest bill until we get further information

If you are having issues with your solicitor (instructed by you to act for you and your husband) then a formal complaint to the firm would be your starting point.

If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction then you can escalate your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman here > http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/helping-the-public/

However I think it may be wise to establish what the firm should or should not have done before you go down that route.

Di

[Me1960]

Re: Solicitor and barrister

Thank you Di. What is the best way to ask the firm to explain why they recommended both solicitor and barrister for that court appearance? Should we ask for an itemised bill? We did phone to ask what exactly the last bill was for as we were told we had paid up to date previously. If we ask to have a meeting with our solicitor again it's another £250 per hour. We are so stressed out by the whole court process already

[Peridot]

Re: Solicitor and barrister

Hi Me1960,

If I understand you correctly you and your husband are applying as the grandparents for contact with your grandchildren?

If that is the case, your solicitor should not be giving any advice to your daughter, unless this was in response to a proposal for contact you made to her. From what you say it would seem to suggest that this is not the case. There is a clear conflict of interest if it is indeed the case that your daughter received 'advice' from your solicitor. Di M is correct a complaint should be made to the firm. Technically if a conflict has arisen with the solicitor advising both you and your daughter then the firm should not act for either of you any longer. However, depending on what advice the solicitor has provided your daughter and the information that she received or divulged about either parties case and as you are in the middle of proceedings it may be more stressful and time consuming changing solicitors at this point.

With regard to instructing a barrister, in addition to the solicitor attending the Court hearing, it is quite usual for barrister's to represent you at later hearings, although not always necessary for the solicitor to also attend. This would be more for 'hand holding' purposes or if the case were rather complicated, so they can assist the barrister and support you at Court. In any event you should have been advised of the cost of instructing the barrister and their attendance fee for Court before their services were engaged.

You need to obtain a complete breakdown of your fees and disbursements to date. In addition, check your terms and conditions including the Client Care letter which should set out clearly what the anticipated fees to deal with your case are. If the costs have spiralled over the amount quoted and you have received no revised costs estimate then you are within your rights to question the bills. Solicitors have to provide costs estimates and up-date them if necessary.

In order to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (LO) you would need to have made a formal complaint to the firm in the first instance and then if the complaint is not settled satisfactorily through the firm, you can send a complaint to the LO.

[Me1960]

Re: Solicitor and barrister

Thank you to all replies. We have tried to query the bill but currently our solicitor is away for the week. The advice given to our daughter by our solicitor was this: our daughter recurred a letter for a directions hearing at court for the next day. Shephoned lir solicitor to ask if this was correct and if she was to attend. Our solicitor phoned us to explain our daughter had queried a letter and asked if we had received the same letter, which we hadn't. Lir so,inciting said she would phone the courts and get back to our daughter and also us. At no point did she say we would be charge for this! A bit later she called us back to confirm we do not need to attend and that she had also told our daughter. If we k ew we would be charged we would have told her not to contact our daughter at all. We are unable to confirm anything else until next week but we at very well post again for advice once we understand what we are being billed for, thank you all so much

[Diana M]

Re: Solicitor and barrister

That sounds like your solicitor was only discussing a possible hearing date with your daughter to establish who needed to attend or not. That's more of a procedural thing than advice.

If she (daughter) had a solicitor instructed they may have called your solicitor to have the same conversation. Non attendance at a hearing which you might have been required to attend (or your solicitor on your behalf) could have been detrimental to you - although from what you say it turned out to be a storm in a tea cup.

Both sides do talk to each other in a civilised way. At least we try to keep it civilised

The issue seems to be what 'work' you were charged for. You've every right to know that especially if their rate is £250 per hour!

Di