Interesting letter..

[hoxtonbabe]

Hi,

Can a solicitor tell you after you have signed up, that unless you take on all my advice I can not act for you? Bearing in mind I will not be able to easily move to another law firm due to the fact that I get legal aid (which is a whole new ball game).

Naturally there is s bit more to this, but that is the long and short of it.

thanks

If you have LA you are under a duty to act reasonably. If you refuse to accept your sols advice you can do so, but don't expect your LA to continue. The LSC will deem you to be abusing your funding if you refuse a reasonable offer or conduct your case unreasonably in any other way.

hmmm...the issue I have is that the goal post was constantly (albeit subtlety) being moved. I signed up with said person due to the discussions we had and appeared to be understanding of what I was getting at, over the weeks the goal post keeps moving, which I understand if new evidence crops up, but it would appear as one realised how big my file was (I had to move from previous solicitor as she vanished or I can only assume got sacked) then I think the light bulb went off and thought "ooh eck" the written advice I have finally been given isn't actually a totally true reflection of what we had been discussing over the last 5 or so weeks, but I can already see that it has been deflected back to me by saying i didn't give clear instructions and other wording which is making me appear to be the one getting the total wrong end of the stick.

The other issue which has just dawned on me is that you say I have a duty to act reasonably, I suppose that can be quite subjective, I would think that a client refusing everything is unreasonable, yet another person may not think so (im not agreeing I am just giving an example) but I have not received any papers outlining this, I was asked to sign a sheet (one to get my files and another to give advice) I do not dispute the LSC have such rules, but if this is not pointed out from the off, then go on to say I have xxx rules and expectations you must follow, without actually letting me see this before signing is a tad iffy to me.

Either way I am going to have to get her to close my file and maybe go off to a charitable organsation as no matter what it wont work, if I am told I must agree with everything I suggest (even when I know she has told porkies on some things) even if I do not agree. There will be aspects of my case we will not agree on due to the nature of it and the long term impact which only I seem to be looking at then I cant go agree with something that could potentially cause more harm, and if sol is saying they wont act for me for not agreeing with all the advise then i have no choice I suppose...

Solicitors have a duty to the court as well as a client and sometimes must cease to act for a client, for example if there is a conflict of interests or the client has deceived the court. A solicitor may cease to act for someone if there is a good reason and they give reasonable notice. A good reason would be the client loosing confidence in the solicitor, ignoring advice and not complying with agreements or court orders etc.

STIDW, can I PM you as you have raised something that I cant/do not want to say on here.