Interpretation of solicitors letter

[annie987]

I know no one will be able to answer this for certain but I’d love some opinions please.

My SIL was being chased for a debt she didn’t owe (paid in cash, didn’t a receipt (lesson learned), they tried to get her to pay again).
She received a number of increasingly threatening letters from a solicitor regarding the ‘debt’ eventually saying if it wasn’t paid they’d take her to court.
She said fine she’d be happy to go to court as she’d already paid.
She received another letter from the solicitor to say they were ‘no longer instructed to deal with the matter. Please don’t contact us, any correspondence should be sent directly to the client’

Is it likely to be over?

No, it just means that that particular solicitors firm aren't dealing with it any more. Whether the matter is over with is a different story.

Have you checked it's a real solicitor's letter? I had something similar a long time ago but it was clearly written by a friend/relative of the family. I ignored it and nothing happened.

I would guess the client hasn't paid the solicitor's bills, but it's possible the client has disinstructed the firm for some reason.

Ok thank you.

Also possible the solicitor has dumped his shady client.

@annie987

Please do remember that a debt can only be enforced [UK] if it has been to court. There is nothing to worry about in court. You will be courteously dealt with by the judiciary if you are unrepresented.

The vast majority of court cases succeed solely because the claimant goes to court and the defendant [potentially "you"] does not so the claimant gets "judgement by default". The reasons for that are that they are frightened, do not care, miss deadlines and so on.

The problem for you will be that you will have to show "evidence" that you did pay. If you paid in cash [presumably] you took money from your bank account and that would be a start. At the time there would be a corresponding withdrawal that you could show on a bank statement, letters, e-mails would help too.

The difficulty comes if - say - you run a business and paid from the cash takings. The standard of proof is the "balance of probabilities" - is it more likely than not. It does depend on what you can show. Simply turning up [and you must] and saying "I paid in cash" and he says "You did not" is not going to get very far.

The solicitor is off the record which does not mean that they cannot get another or go to court themselves. Your attitude is 100% correct. Simply answer every letter "I do not owe this money; take me to court!" No explanations. The next stage - if any - is that the claimant issues a "letter before action" and you can reply - briefly - to that. If it goes further then he issues court proceedings. Do not ignore it and amke sure you reply to the court by every deadline or the case may be decided in his favour! How much is involved?