If you’re a solicitor, don’t you be ever feel embarrassed about…

[ElaineAndBarbara]

…the ridiculous letters you sometimes send on behalf of your clients?

I volunteer with a not-profit and often help people who are at the receiving end of “solicitors’ letters”, designed solely to scare them.

The general consensus on MN seems to be that a solicitor will write anything in one of these letters, in exchange for a fairly small amount of money, but surely professional integrity applies?

I spent a lot of time recently trying to console a person who was on the receiving end of such a letter from their neighbour threatening all sorts in response to allegations that are unsubstantiated. The letter was utterly ridiculous (and the grammar was atrocious to the extent that I wasn’t entirely convinced that it did come from an actual solicitor, but was able to verify that it did), caused a huge amount of stress to this person, and contained inaccurate threats of legal action, plus some very questionable data protection practices.

Does anyone else feel that these letters are morally wrong, and shouldn’t be allowed? Surely a solicitor is morally and professionally obliged to ensure that any correspondence they issue is based on fact and, you know, the actual law?

I imagine from your description it wasn't actually written by a solicitor. Do you know it definitely was? Most solicitors I know would charge too much for the initial meeting and then the letter writing for most people to bother

It did.

I mentioned it in my post.

Oh missed that bit. In that case if it contains inaccuracies about legal action I would write to the Partners of the solicitors practice involved and complain.

Reminds me of a poster on here, haven't had an update for a good while though, that every now and then receives a letter via a solicitor from their ex husband wanting monies from them.

Should be some kind of law to put a stop to it especially in cases where there's been seen to be no case to answer for..demanding money by menace should come into force

Really does make you realise though that people will do anything to earn a good few bob, easy money really.

Solicitors’ conduct is regulated: they can’t misrepresent or mislead and must be truthful in communications - so a solicitor sending a letter which contains threats of repercussions they know are outwith the law can be reported to the SRA.

Ultimately, the unprofessional substance and poor grammar reflects that this was a letter from a not very good solicitor, who will take on any client with a ridiculous allegation, because they’re not getting decent clients to pay the bills. Successful solicitors don’t need to take in clients like this, they can simply decline to act.

We are a highly regulated profession so this sounds off, if data protection was compromised they should be reported to the SRA.

Gah, just spotted the typo in the thread title.

And the ICO.

My sister was once on the receiving end of a similar sounding letter, we think the solicitor was maybe a friend of the “aggrieved” person.

I am a solicitor, and helped my sister draft a strongly worded letter back pointing out a solicitor’s duties not to misrepresent the law etc and saying that a report would be made to the SRA if it continued. The person sending the letter was the firm’s complaints partner(!) so she also cc’d the managing partner.

She never heard from the solicitor or the aggrieved person again!

Obviously the solicitor has only one side of the story and is representing their client to get the best outcome.
I can imagine it would be scary to get such a letter.
The key thing to remember, it's a solicitor's letter, not a court order, police summons etc.
You can ignore it, reply yourself with facts, up to you.

Some solicitors do this but probably only those working in small firms in contentious areas.

I work in a relatively large firm and we would virtually never deal with an individual directly. All parties are represented so you deal through the other side’s solicitor. I’m in a largely non-contentious area so we’re mostly very polite to each other.

I have never written a letter direct to an individual (other than my own clients) in my whole legal career.

But absolutely report to the SRA if you think a solicitor’s letter is misleading, untruthful etc.

Who do you complain to about a solicitor? My dh has received 2 letters from a solicitor but they gave time frames of 14 days. Then the second one came along 7 days after the first saying a completely different thing and tried to backdate it to the first dated letter time frame. I received legal advice and what they have given him isn't even lawful.... but I forgot to ask what we do to report.

I cant believe some solicitors just think they can make up some twaddle to scare someone and they get away with it. OPs post and the letters we have received is the first I have seen /heard it. Maybe it's not as uncommon as I thought.

My ex husband sent me a letter, via his divorce solicitor, demanding 50% custody of my children. I already shared 50/50 custody with their biological father, who was not my ex husband.

it infuriated me, which was presumably the intention.
I wrote back and explained the ridiculous nature of the correspondence. No further letters arrived.

@ElaineAndBarbara how many of these letters are you seeing?

I know that with letters of claim alleging certain types of IPR infringement, an unjustified threat is actionable by the recipient and the solicitor could be personally liable. I’ve spent a good few hours worrying about that in my career, but I also wonder why that principle (ie unjustified threats being actionable) is not applied more widely?

They’re pretty regular. Maybe once or twice a month.

@Reallyyyyyy your first port of call should be the complaints process for the firm itself, which should be on their website, then the SRA.

Report the solicitor.

@SlipperyLizard thank you!

Sometimes though they can only go with the information they were given.

I got a shirty letter from a solicitor relatively recently, along with two other of my ex's exes, demanding mediation to "discuss and resolve the issue of access to the children without the need for court action ".

They were mahoosively apologetic (and I believe have refused to work with him any further) when I called them to enquire what court action they were intending to take against me if my young but adult children, who do not even live with me, chose not to see him...

Yes someone I know got one recently where it was very clear the solicitor had only been told one side of the story.

there were demands to rectify various issues, but clearly hadn’t been told their client had caused all the issues!

I think it happens a lot when people don’t have the money for proper legal consultation. Sometimes it’s a scare tactic.

You’d think that one of the first questions a solicitor would ask when concerning a custody arrangement is what the ages of the children involved are? It’s fairly basic. Even with the apology, it shows laziness and a lack of due process on their part.

I’m a solicitor. I don’t send ridiculous letters. I send letters which set out the facts in neutral language with minimal or no use of adverbs, and set out what my client wants as a result. I often receive letters from other solicitors written in hyperbolic language designed to whip up an adversarial situation, and I respond to those in a particularly neutral manner.

There are good lawyers and bad lawyers, just like in any job. A good litigator is a lot more than a mouthpiece for their angry client. The job involves managing emotions to achieve a decent settlement rather than cause people to become more entrenched in their positions. Legal disputes are rarely black and white with one side obviously “right” so acting as though you’re unimpeachable is unhelpful and tends to act as a barrier to settlement.