Question about personal contact with people you're engaged in litigation with

[itsuckstoo]

DH is suing a rental company for nuisance and damages. Solicitor already engaged, letters sent, just waiting for their response.

Last night at 5am he lost it and sent the owner of the rental company an angry email with more accusations, cc;d into me and his solicitor.

It is obvious to me this was a stupid, stupid move. DH denies this and is angry with me that I think it was the wrong thing to do. He says he did it because he needs to "keep a record" of what's happening.

I said you can't start legal proceedings through a solicitor and then continue to personally contact the person you have started proceedings against. He says that bullshit.

Please can you tell me what the proper legal term for this is and what the possible ramifications could be?

You can still contact them but its certainly not advisable in most situations. The ramifications are simply that the email and the contact become part of the "story" and the evidence.

So if the contact was at 5am and angry, it can be viewed as harassment?

The real problem is contacting someone personally when you know they also have a solicitor. You having one isn't the biggest problem.

5 am and angry will not reflect well on him at all. Get him to listen to you!

SO DH should have emailed their solicitor directly? Can you give me a reason for that? Only because he won't understand the difference and I don't have the legal language to explain it.

I am so angry with his impetuousness.

Contacting them personally when you know they have a solicitor is not a problem as such either.

Their solicitor contacting you directly when they know you are professionally represented by another solicitor is a problem (for the solicitor).

Its unlikely to amount to harassment if t's a one off email but potentially could if it continued. Your DH is not obliged to email the person's solicitor either. If you have representation just leave it to the lawyers and no problems will arise.

(I'm a solicitor btw)

I agree with redhat. It's a pretty stupid thing to do and makes him look like a dick but is unlikely to have any ramifications beyond that. I suspect his solicitor won't be thrilled.

Why did he send MORE accusations? Has he not told his solicitor the whole story? Why did he decide an email was the best way of keeping a record? Maybe suggest a diary or Word document in future...

titchy there was more disturbance last night - violence, noises etc, and he got so wound up he sent them another email

I'm a solicitor too and I'm not just saying this to put our fees up!

If someone has instructed a solicitor and you know that then it does not look good to go to them directly (unless you have an ongoing relationship that means you need to be in correspondence).

As Redhat says, it's nowhere near as bad as if the solicitor contacts someone personally when they know they're represented.

It's not a case of this one thing causing a problem but there is a risk of it being harassment if its ongoing, plus you really want your client to look like the nice reasonable one, and direct correspondence tends to have the opposite effect...

I don't know the story here, but as you have probably already been advised, rental companies and landlords are not liable for disturbance caused by their tenants...