Solicitor completely effed up!

[JessicaRabbit23]

Can anybody let me know if this is ok to send to a solicitor for a complaint? Am I being unreasonable?
thanks

Dear [Solicitor’s Name or Firm],

I am writing to formally lodge a complaint regarding serious errors during the probate process of [Deceased’s Name]. Two wills were provided to your firm: a revoked will and the most recent valid will. Despite clear communication, the revoked will was initially sent to probate, delaying the process by several months. While I was understanding, the situation escalated when HMRC granted probate, but then uploaded the revoked will to the public registry. This has resulted in the previous beneficiary being aware of their inclusion in a superseded will, creating significant concern.

Although I contacted your office immediately upon discovering this error, and you acted swiftly to correct it, the fact remains that this mistake has jeopardized the integrity of the probate process and caused undue stress. Given these circumstances, I request that your firm cover any legal costs I now incur due to potential contestation of the will. I would also like a written clarification confirming whether this incident constitutes legal malpractice or gross misconduct. Should I not receive satisfactory resolution, I will have no choice but to escalate this matter.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Contact Information]

Good suggestions above,

What nationality or nationalities was the deceased? I just read on the Trusts Discussion Forum that a British solicitor with a Swiss client was told by the Swiss to submit the old will as well as the current one for probate. This may be required elsewhere, also.

Are you sure that the publication of the old will was discovered on a British site or venue?

I agree that at minimum a government functionary messed up, but it is not clear from your proposed letter (a) why you sent the old will along; (b) why the solicitors sent the old will to probate; and thus (c) whether anyone else messed up and if so, what really happened.

I agree there is needless actual or potential distress for you here, and it should not have happened. But why is the integrity of probate compromised?

If the firm of solicitors is blameworthy then yes they should pay your costs if the new will is contested. Your letter hasn’t established that.

It's allowed but it's not accurate, doesn't make sense and won't get you anywhere.

I can understand why you are upset OP.
Unfortunately, it is likely to be considered human error (no one is exempt from that).
There was a major omission by my solicitors re conveyancing service that really caused problems. I complained to the legal ombudsman after my complaint to the solicitor was not addressed appropriately.
I received £500 compensation which was within the guidelines.
I wasn't so much worried about the compensation, more about the potential implications of their own omission

probate solicitor here.

this doesn’t really add up. A solicitor cannot send a copy will to probate (unless they have asked for leave from the probate registry to prove a copy will in absence of the original). It seems very unlikely therefore that the Will sent to them was a copy. the probate registry would have queried it.

the pp who said you would have had to have signed the will before it went to probate is wrong.

it is unlikely that a firm will agree to pay your legal costs for the dispute unless you can prove categorically that there would have been no dispute if the previous revoked will had not been sent to the probate registry. It may be difficult to show that there would not have been a dispute otherwise

I mean the tone I’m receiving on here from being abit of a thicko why wouldn’t I use it. I literally have no idea what I’m doing but I’m worrying

Was the unhappy person a dependent, what grounds would they have for contesting the will and if they do surely they pay. What legal costs would op incur.

Cross posted with you, OP.

You sent the old will to the solicitors by mistake. They sent it to HMG by mistake, who made it accessible by mistake.

I don’t know how far you will get.

Perhaps there is a reason, namely competence, that the original firm had higher fees.

What are you worried about, were you the executor of the will.

The estate would incur fees. These would be paid before disbursements.

Yes. Do not include that sentence.

Very chat GPT. Suspect it will get filed and ignored.

What do you actually want to happen here? For the solicitor who sent the wrong will to get a ticking off? Fine, make a complaint, but they are probably just very overworked and everybody slips up occasionally. As others have said it might have been better to not send revoked wills in the first place.

The uploading to the website is HMRC’s fault (assuming they were told and supplied with the correct will) so you’d need to complain to them about this.

If you’re looking for some sort of payout you need to set out what
legal “wrong” has occurred (negligence? possibly but a high bar) but also what damage it has caused you. At the moment all I can see is a bit of delay in getting probate- which takes an age anyway- and a former beneficiary being made aware they’ve been written out of the will. Are they going to challenge the new will? Otherwise I can’t see how you’ve lost out financially?

It was a minor tactical mistake to send the old will along to the solicitor, but not a serious one. The solicitor should have ignored it ir destroyed it.

OP hasn’t made a serious mistake, certainly nothing the court would care about.

Exactly, I can't see how op is responsible for any costs but it's not very clear. Has the probate been granted and the estate settled, has the money now been distributed. It just sounds like one person was a beneficiary in the first will but the second will left them out, that is not a reason to contest a will unless it falls under the very strict guidelines, not just because you're peed off because you don't inherit.

I sent two wills
a revoked will (a copy not original)
a more recent copy (original)
I asked what happens to the revoked will and solicitor said ‘it will get destroyed’

•probate solicitor sent the revoked will to probate by accident/mistake
•4 months down the line this got questioned by probate examiner as the figures didn’t match with the forms as the revoked will they had, had two beneficiaries (myself and another) (this is what I was told)
•Correct will was sent and more waiting commenced.
• Probate granted with correct will. One beneficiary me. Funds distributed to me.
• Who ever uploads to the probate registry search uploaded the wrong will (the revoked will that was originally questioned by probate examiner) I thought this was HMRC sorry if I got this wrong I have no clue who uploads.

The trouble is it doesn't know what it's doing either. Just write explaining what you are worried about in plain English that you and the solicitor will understand. They should have a complaints procedure that you should follow if you want to complain.

I don't see the need for a letter at this stage, unless it is simply to express concern at the error.

The solicitors can only be liable for loss they have caused. Assuming everyone now knows what the final position is, it would be unreasonable for the beneficiary to bring a claim unless there is something untoward about the circumstances of the final will. The beneficiary of the revoked will is unlikely to succeed in any claim (assuming nothing untoward) and if they bring such a claim and lose will probably be liable to pay your costs.

Also if the former beneficiary was interested enough to look up the will (which suggests a level of expectation) they may have challenged the current will in any event.

You may get an apology from the solicitors but you certainly won't get an acceptance of gross misconduct.

Because you’ve used AI to write it, it includes American spellings.

What are you worried about? What do you want to happen?

If it’s a claim from the previous beneficiary to contest the will, just wait and see if that happens and then raise this with the solicitors dealing with the estate. Otherwise just chalk it up to experience. The previous beneficiary may have known already that they were in an old will and probably could have found out from other people too. Plus challenging a will is difficult and costly.

If this is what happened, you have no claim against the solicitor. They made a mistake which was rectified.

any course of action would be against the probate office, but the reality is you’d need to prove this mistake caused you a loss and from you have said, it hasn’t. Causation will be hard to show.

Ok this is clearer. The mistake here is the probate registry’s in that case. If they proved the correct will but uploaded the wrong one, it’s unfortunate but not the solicitor’s fault. The probate registry knew which will was correct but they made the error. I think you’ll struggle to get any sort of compensation for this.

Yes I’m the executor. I had no idea not to send the revoked will I thought I was doing the right thing. Solicitor told me it would be destroyed. It wasn’t. But the previous beneficiary on the revoked will searched up the deceased and saw the old will and demanded money. Solicitor got this rectified very quickly and spoke to beneficiary on revoked will and apologised. But told me she’s instructing solicitors.

@JessicaRabbit23 you've either got a second thread running about this, but in reverse or your sister is on mn!

link x

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5493900-aibu-to-feel-insulted