To think my solicitor has screwed me over!

[Lakes11]

Its 4 days before I attend the first hearing for a child contact court order that my ex as raised. My solicitor (she's actually a paralegal) has been away for a week and previous to that I had not heard much and thought she had everything in hand.
She had months ago told me she could attend court with me if I wished her too. She's put in a legal aid application for me too which I thought was in hand. Today after emailing her asking about court and what the process is and what's happening and can she attend and my legal aid, it is only now she's telling me she can't attend court with me as she has no advocacy rights and I'll have to pay for a barrister privately as my legal aid decision will not come though until next Wednesday at the earliest.

So she's said I may have to self represent. I've paid her so much money previously whilst waiting to apply for legal aid which I can't really afford but what has she actually done other then send some emails. She hasn't advised me even when I've asked questions.
On top of this we are still awaiting a court bundle from my ex which I knew nothing about until now and she's only just chasing up for. So I don't have that. Reading up on a court bundle.it states about having personal statements in there? I asked her months ago about me having my say as I haven't had any chance to respond she said that I wouldn't need to do that until the fact finding hearing.

I feel like she's absolutely screwed me over and is completely useless. I don't have the money to go to anyone else and there is only one other firm in my region who does legal aid but they are no use either and did not get back to me.

I am so stressed, I don't know what I'm going to do and I don't know anything about court!

You have been let down at every step in the chain, but, sadly, I am not surprised. Do you think you could be brave enough to represent yourself on Monday ? Just state the facts and how the events have affected your children (school, health, demeanour etc) and your concerns. There is still time to nip to the doctor's and get a beta blocker on prescription to calm your nerves for the day. Phone the solicitors , but I don't think that you will get much help there, and you can lodge a complaint but solicitors tend to govern their own.

I would contact them first thing. You will likely have some paperwork to submit prior to your hearing. It is likely to be a position statement where you basically set out what your position or what you are seeking. Eg. Children to live with me and visit with their father on XX.

The first hearing is literally to establish if you agree (or not) and how far apart you are. The magistrate will not rule on anything so you absolutely will be able to represent yourself.

So I've emailed her back and expressed how disappointed I am that I'm only being made aware now that she cannot represent me. She has come back and said I told you I could only support you. This is not entirely true. She told me she could support me in court but did not make it clear she could not represent me and had no capacity to represent me because she has not right of advocacy. If she had made this very clear to me then I would have spoken to someone else in the firm. Why did she not refer me to her manager.

This phone call was to discuss the whole court process as I had requested due to me knowing nothing about the processes or anything to do with the legal system.

She has also stated that to get an adjournment the other party has to agree to it and she believes the other party will not. Which I do agree with because my ex is awful and his solicitor is extremely aggressive. My ex's solicitor is the partner of a big firm in the city who has an amazing reputation. She knows her stuff and will be pulling me apart.

She said I dont need a position statement but can write one for me.

Not once has she suggested I speak to a solicitor who could represent me. And why has the legal aid taken so long. She's saying there is a back log but I don't know if I trust what she's saying now.

Put your complaint immediately in writing to the head of the firm, state what you have on here including dates and what she said and so on - ask the firm to apply for an extension immediately to the court and get themselves sorted so you can have proper representation. You could also go straight to a barrister - if you’d rather cut out a solicitor. Either way it is their fault and you need a senior partner to pick this up and deal with it.

I feel so overwhelmed and really dont know where to start.

This is the first hearing so yes I should not be there for long. Least this is not the fact finding. Because then I would be really really panicked.

Just to make matters even better this first hearing has fallen on my first day at my new job. My boss was happy for me to leave at 11 but just seen I need to be at the court for 11!

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/civil-processing-dates

It looks like it's currently taking 13 working days to process legal aid. You need to make a complaint to the managing partner asap and make it clear you'll report to SRA if they don't take immediate action to rectify this.

Oh Lakes11, that is bad luck ! You will need to ask for the morning off, and tell him you will be there in the afternoon. You might get lucky and he might just say start a day later.
Have a think about what you wanted your legal rep to say in court - that is what you want to get across. If you don't want your ex to have contact you need to state that and lay out factual reasons as to why. Write it all down, everything you would have wanted a solicitor to say on your behalf, and then go back to it a day later and edit and make it sharp, factual, concise.

I can’t help with the Solicitor (although they sound shit) but I have represented myself at family court, although I now have a Barrister.

First hearing is easy to self rep.

You can do a position statement, but you don’t have to. Go in clear with what your concerns are, ie, I had a DV history and I wanted a Section 7 from Cafcass for safeguarding.

The applicants solicitor (your ex?) should have prepared the bundle. If you know who they are then either your Paralegal or you can chase that, it won’t be loads, but you need to check it for inaccuracy.

You can do your own talking, but you must be clear on what your concerns are from the outset. His Solicitor won’t be questioning you, you will talk to the Judge and it takes around an hour.

I know it’s a pile of shit, but you can sort this one out. Chase the bundle, check the bundle and query anything they’ve sneaked in, then write down your position if only for yourself, and then just use that to refer to x

No, you are still conflating two separate things.

The first thing - by far the most important - is making sure that there is representation by current solicitors, or it being adjoined, or OP being in the best position to conduct the hearing herself to get the best outcome.

That does not require ANY discussion along the lines of “why did you tell me you’d be at the hearing and now you aren’t, I want to complain etc etc.” It is purely factual and problem solving: you say you can’t represent me. Is there someone in the firm who can? How much would that cost? And so on.

The second thing is the complaint: you told me this and it wasn’t correct, you left me in the lurch etc.

These two things can be approached entirely separately. They should be. There is a herring on Monday. Preparing adequately for that is the ONLY priority right now. There is no need to start bending the names partner’s ear about that today or tomorrow. Say in one sentence if you want “I am not happy but we need to focus on practicalities now.” That is it. If OP starts argy bargy about her complaint it will take up an inordinate amount of time on the complaint and not on preparing for the hearing. It can wait.

This. Follow up in writing.

I’m a solicitor OP and 80% of my clients are on legal aid. I do not do any work for them until it’s verified that they are eligible for legal aid. I basically say to them, before I can see you, I need to know who’s paying for it. If they’re not eligible, I’m working for free?

I also wouldn’t prepare a bundle for a client until I know how it’s being paid for! That’s the law firm having a legal aid contract. It’s not just handed to all and sundry. Have they asked for your finances - tenancy agreement, UC, council tax, wage slips etc - that’s how LA is decided.

And if you aren’t eligible for LA, they’ll have a fee structure. There’s no such thing as we’ll send you the bill. This ain’t LA Law.

Court dates are diarised - it’s not like, hey Sam, you free Monday? Can you pop into court for Lakes11? And while you’re there can you submit the bundle?

Someone has fucked up. The paralegal may have just realised your not eligible for LA, or she never submitted the paperwork, or no one’s done any work on your case ie no bundle, so they have no idea how they’ll wing it on Monday.

My advice? Rip them to shreds and make sure they sort the situation for Monday. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t eligible for LA - they should have told you. If doesn’t matter if you don’t have a bundle - they should have done it and if not, told you.

And then leave a trustpilot using names.

Talk to a senior partner tomorrow and follow up all telephone calls in writing. Ensure they know you will be escalating this to the SRA if you are not suitably prepared by Monday.
What have you been paying for if they have not even advised you of the process etc at this late point. And the lie about nobody else you could talk to whilst she was on holiday.

Absolutely this OP. Honestly I was where you are now and I was terrified. I have no legal knowledge, I’ve never been in a court before etc. I didn’t even have anything submitted to the court - no position statement or witness statement, nothing.

As I said earlier I had a copy of ex’s statement (which had been sent to me in the post by his solicitor about a week before the hearing) and was prepared to go through each of the points made in his statement with the judge but it didn’t come down to that at all. I did that later with my solicitor.

And as PP states your ex’s Barrister won’t talk to you. I found my ex’s Barrister quite polite (although he was probably required to be) as he didn’t directly accuse me of anything. He just stated ‘Mr X claims XYZ’, not ‘Mrs X has done XYZ’ - a subtle difference but I in know way felt attacked by his Barrister.

The judge will not rule anything about your children’s living arrangements on Monday. I’m sure he’ll only Request a witness statement to be filed by X date.

No way*

Email them as follows to the paralegal cc in the senior partner and the supervising solicitor who should be set out in the client care letter. Keeping this email is key:

Dear XXX

As you are aware, it was my understanding that I would be represented by your firm at the hearing on Monday.

You gave me the impression that I was entitled to legal aid and that you would be making the application for me. I now understand that you have not obtained legal aid.

I understand it is possible to grant me emergency legal aid, using your powers of delegated functions. If you are satisfied that I am eligible.

Please confirm whether you have applied for legal aid on Ccms and whether you are satisfied as to my eligibility for legal aid. If the answer to both of those questions is yes, please use your delegated functions to grant me emergency legal aid for Mondays, hearing and book counsel immediately.

If you do not think I am eligible for legal aid, please confirm.

If you have not applied for for legal aid using Ccms please explain why.

If I attend in person on Monday, I will be asking the court for an adjournment and I will give the court a detailed chronology of your conduct in this matter. I would suggest that the most sensible way forward would be for your firm to make an urgent application for the matter to be adjourned pending a legal a decision being made, unless you can grant legal aid using delegated functions tomorrow.

I am considering a formal complaint, but hope this can be avoided.
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I have nothing useful to add but this thread is just the best of mumsnet...women stepping in to help other women, generously sharing all their experience and knowledge.
Best of luck with everything OP ❤

Seconding @TheAOEAztec cphine tomorrow ask to speak to a partner in family law and make clear you are complaining. They will very much care. How much money you may be worth is not really relevant, complaints to the SRA massively affect them and will cost them dearly, so they would likely want to sort things with you and prevent a compliant. This paralegal has behaved appallingly and you’ve signed terms of engagement- WTF were you never seen by a solicitor??? Generally very unusual to let paralegals loose on clients unsupervised. Please please call and stand your ground and demand a experienced solicitor sort this out for you

Can you remember or have a copy of signing a Cw1 OP? The date on it will tell when you/they applied for LA.

Another move you can make is to register with a new solicitor, one who preferably has an LA contract, and they will in turn request your file from your current solicitor. They have to transfer your file within seven days but if you explain that your court date is Monday and your current solicitors have done fuck all, the new solicitor can pressure them and then request an adjournment based the lack of work etc the current ones have done. All will be seen on your file, dates, communications, etc. New representation can also lead to adjournment.

You can shuffle off and self rep, but why? You did nothing wrong, They did.

I would try calling the NGO rights of women. They specialise in domestic violence and family law issues. They also have a load of legal guides on their website which may be helpful

Not the case at all. Please join it and you will see!! They help all parents.

Thank you for your advise. I completely get they cannot work for free. I applied for legal aid at the beginning in april and it got declined so I have been paying as a private client since then. However my circumstances changed and the paralegal reapplied for me. She suggested to do this around the beginning of august, not sure why as I was ready to go with the information prior to this.

I've been saying for a while that she has not been getting back to me promptly and has been ignoring some of my queries. I asked her what our plan of action was as my ex seems to have one with his solicitor and I felt like we didn't. She just said we could not do much until court because I'm not the applicant

I have self represented in family court several times. Please do not ne frightened. The vast majority of family court hearings are self represented as legal advice is so expensive. It's a first hearing, you won't be questioned by the other parties solicitor. You will be speak to the judge, they will listen to your concerns and will most likely order a section 7, which is where court appointed social workers are asked to speak to yourself, ex partner and rhe children if its age appropriate. Do however ensure you haul that crappy paralegal over the coals and make as much fuss as possible! Good luck

Thank you. My ex's solicitor has stated in various emails that my conduct is unacceptable and that she will be making the judge aware of this.

My conduct has not been and me and the paralegal have only ever sent non emotional emails. My ex's solicitor did not send the application for court to my paralegal as directed, has not replied to a important request from me, has not sent the bundle to us and is being incredibly difficult. My paralegal also mentioned at the beginning in april that this solicitor is known for being a bull in a china shop and being tough and she was especially shocked at the email she had sent me before I had legal representation.
So I am very worried about what she is going to say to the judge. I also know they can try speak to me before court and I feel they are going to try bully me into some agreement before hand.

Have you already got the CAFCASS safeguarding letter? Do you agree with what it is recommending as the next steps for the case?
If you're happy with what CAFCASS has proposed as the way forward in the case, and you can't get representation for Monday, just tell the judge/legal advisor you agree with CAFCASS.
For time off work, if you have to be there at 11 and you're listed at 12, just be aware it is entirely possible you might be there all day waiting to get in front of the judge - sometimes lists go awry.

The current processing times for legal aid applications are publicised by the Legal Aid Agency, although from experience, they are not an exact science. As of 23.08.23, they state that applications (which include a means assessment, as yours would) are taking 13 working days. So, if this had been applied for at the beginning of August, I would have expected to have heard something by now. There are occasions when the Legal Aid Agency ask for further information, which will inevitably push back the timescales, which may have happened. You should have been informed in any event. As PP have suggested, I would contact the firm tomorrow and speak to a Partner/Supervisor. The paralegal in question will have a designated supervisor and this should have been set out in your initial letter/terms of engagement. If not, just speak to the the Head of Dept or another Partner. At the firm I work for, a complaint such as yours would be taken extremely seriously and every effort would be made to rectify the issues. I hope the same can be said for the firm you are using. I am sorry you are going through this. Please call them first thing. All the best.