really bad solicitor - advice please.

[deburca]

Can I have a rant please? I have a solicitor in Northern Ireland who is truly awful. Im using Legal Aid at present and its just awful dealing with them, Citizens Advice have recommended this solicitor to me - cant go into details as to why I need a solicitor but here goes:

I cant get a return call from them, I could call them up to 10 times before I will get a response, I leave messages asking the status of the case and hear nothing.

They have assured me that Legal Aid have received my application, I telephoned Legal Aid myself as I couldnt get any response from solicitor - they have never received an application from them on my behalf

The Solicitor dealing with my case has just taken 4 weeks off work, after numerous conversations with his PA I have only today gotten to speak to him - he came to the phone once I mentioned the words "formal complaint".

Should I just go back to Citizens Advice and ask them to move my case?

I have no faith in this crowd anymore - just find them so so crap to be honest!

Yep - ask them to move it. No solicitor should be that bad.

I think you ar right Tiago. They are so bad - i just wonder at this stage will they make it difficult for me to move the case. They are clearly just interested in the cash rather than actually working for it

Go to another solicitor and explain you want to move the case. You sign a form and your file will be sent over to the new solicitor. If you are waiting on legal aid though it can take ages and ages and that doesn't matter who your solicitor is.

Plus I would say, although you are concerned, don't keep ringing for an update. THEY call YOU when something has happened. (Sorry this annoyed the hell out of me when I worked as a legal secretary. I hated clients who thought they were the only client, or at least the only one that mattered, and it took bloody ages to get them off the phone.)

If you don't have legal aid then you don't need anyone to move your case. Just tell them to stop working for you and go elsewhere.

Word of caution though - don't believe a word the LSC tell you about your application. Their admin is non-existent and your application is probably stuck in their million year long backlog.

And ditto maighdlin. If you are hearing nothing it is probably because nothing is happening.