Is a solicitor allowed to do this?

[divorcequestions]

Friend is in the middle of a long and protracted divorce.

Friend had a bill in for insurance on something that is in joint names.
I should say atm neither of them are using or having any benefit from this thing but it is part of the financial assets that will eventually be assigned to her stbexh.

Friend is maintaining the thing, making sure the loan is paid and all bills and maintenance are carried out.

Whilst she was doing this for the first 18 months on her own she hasn’t any money to carry on as she receives no maintenance from her stbexh.

On receiving the latest bill for the insurance she asked her solicitor to ask her ex’s solicitor for half the money for the insurance.

The money got paid to friends solicitor but friends solicitor has said they are keeping the money as part payment of the bill.

Can they do that. Friend is risking something happening to this asset and it won’t be insured. If then it is lost or severely damaged the worth would deteriorate and the total assets would fall so friend would not get as much in the divorce.

Friends solicitor then told her to stop paying the loan and either hand the keys back or have it repossessed.

Firstly can the solicitor keep the money if it was specifically given as payment for a bill.
This is being used like friends ex is paying part of her divorce bil

Friend only went with this solicitor because she was told that she wouldn’t have to pay up front but pay at the end.
Friend has assets that can be sold to pay for the solicitor once the divorce is sorted.

Secondly can the solicitor advise having an asset repossessed if it’s repossession will result in a detrimental out come for their client

A bit of background. Friend is divorcing because of emotional and financial abuse and domestic violence by her ex over a period of many years.
She can’t get legal aid as they have property in both of their names. (There previous flat which they tried to sell during the last recession but couldn’t so rented it out just to cover the costs thinking they would sell when the family moved out. The family are still there)

In the nearly 3 years this divorce has taken and friend’s ex running a very successful cash only business and other stuff which no one can get a handle on, friend who is severely disabled has been left to fend for herself. Their dc are all over 18 and at university.

The money got paid to friends solicitor but friends solicitor has said they are keeping the money as part payment of the bill

Sorry just read it back.

Just to clarify friends solicitor wants to put the insurance money towards the divorce bill.

Is this item a car? Are you the 'friend'?
From what you have said, I would doubt that the solicitor can keep funds assigned to pay half a bill, but is there more to this?

Firstly can the solicitor keep the money if it was specifically given as payment for a bill.

No, the money is for something specific, if it is clear your friend and the other side have instructed them to use it to pay the insurance bill then the solicitor cannot use it to cover their fees. They need to kick up a fuss and the solicitor should rectify their mistake.

Soontobe60 no I am not the friend.
Nc for this. I am trying to help my friend.

No the thing in question is not a car. (If I say what it is it would be very outing for my friend with the circumstances surrounding the divorce)

coffeeforone

She has raised merry Hell but they will not give her the money. In the meantime they are charging her for the phone calls and letters explaining that the money is to pay down her bill with them.

Friend has asked that certain things are included in her statement to the courts but solicitor won’t include them. Friend said that as the solicitor was supposed to be working for her then she should at least mention them. (All very relevant to the case).
Her solicitor wrote a stinking email to her stating that they would run this case as they saw fit and would not be doing as she asked.

To give you a bit of background. This solicitor takes so many letters to get to the point.
Friend had to send a reply to her ex’s solicitor. Solicitor wrote the letter 8 times.
8 letters each one costing friend over £120 for each letter.
The first 7 were where friend was correcting the solicitor on what had been written until finally on the 8th they got it correct.
Things like the date of the marriage, time lines and what happened.

I have had to take over from the solicitor on a number of occasions just to put in a clear and succinct way what had happened to my friend.
At one time I was accompanying friend to court and the solicitor went mad with us because of what we had written and sent into the judge.

Friend won that case and the judge was actually quoting from the letter we had written.

Friend needs to find another better solicitor and put in a formal complaint about this one.

I did similar, I was lucky enough to divorce during legal aid available to poor days but 1st solicitor was deliberately dragging feet and using 3 letters when one would have done in order to inflate the bill. Complaint was upheld and Iirc they were also charged with some criminal things too by legal aid basically cos it's fraud I'm guessing but I don't know the whole story as it wasn't me that could complain about that.

My understanding is that it's normal for solicitors to be paid at the end of proceedings out of the proceeds of disputed assets.

I also thought that where dv an issue legal aid was available?

I know that having looked at her astronomical bill there is definitely one fundamental mistake as well as the multiple letter stuff.

I am not making up the number of letters. I have only looked in detail at one instance.

Current court case (which is separate from the divorce cases, her ex is very litigious he keeps taking her to court over separate issues)
Friend has told her solicitor not to be involved but somehow they have still managed to add another huge chunk to her bill with letters warning her she isn’t going about the case correctly and she needs them to represent them.

Because of the dv friend would have qualified for legal aid but because she has joint property then she doesn’t get it.

Solicitors all seemed to want a substantial down payment before taking her on when she was looking for a solicitor. This was the only one who would take her on without any money.

Can I ask if when making a complaint do you have to list every single complaint I.e listing every single letter that has been sent multiple times or can friend give examples and let the SRA look through everything and discover everything.

As I have said this divorce is entering the 3rd year.
It has taken ex 18 months to agree to one issue alone. Although ex says he wants the divorce he comes up with random things to delay the proceedings.

I would suggest you report your post and ask MN to move it to Legal.

Ok will do

We'll move this over to legal matters now.

Can she contact the law society. I would have thought that this was client money and they are very strict about keeping client monies separate hence solicitors hold client accounts with very strict rules.

Can she self represent and hire a barrister for court? In the meantime instigate the complaints process with current solicitor's firm.

I've only skimmed the thread, but if the agreement is that your friend would pay her legal bill at the end of the case, and that the money was received jointly belonging to friend and her ex, and was not intended to pay the legal bill early, the solicitor cannot retain it or put it towards their bill without your friend's consent.

I agree with Colla above. I don't handle or ever receive clients' money but I would assume if I did that the sum received was a bit like receiving the deposit for purhcase of a house - it is money for that purpose only (although I suppose they would usually receive the proceeds of sale of a house in property law and then take off various bits and pieces, stamp duty, estaet agent fees, solicitors' costs and only send the cliednt the balance but in those cases all that is made very clear to the client in advance and they are sent a completion statement listing every last deduction.)

Perhaps just start with raising this one issue if the aim is to get the money returned ASAP so a 2 line email copied to the senior partner of the firm saying you understand this is client money received solely for that purpose and you were not told it would be set against costs and the result of it not being paid over is the asset will be uninsured and you might hold the firm responsible for the loss and ask them to explain in writing within 48 hours on what basis the money was withheld otherwise you will have to take it further. May be don't raise all the other complaints until you have got this money back.

Sorry just got back to this thread.

I just needed to check that she couldn’t pay the money towards the solicitors bill.

The problem is the SRA say that if she makes a complaint she has to write to her solicitor with the complaint and give the solicitor 8 weeks to respond.

She had already asked for the monies be given to her but as it stands the letters are costing more than what was given.

I think friend is at her wits end.
She feels not only is she fighting her ex just to get him to agree something or when he takes her to court over other things (he always loses) but she feels that she is fighting her own solicitor.

titchy

Friend isn’t capable of representing herself Friend has severe dyslexia and other health issues.

Friend has written to her solicitor because they are not doing as she wishes. The letter back was to précis

I will run this case as I see fit. I am not taking any notice of what you want.

I have spent days helping friend go through statements that the solicitor has sent to her for her approval but are fundamentally wrong.

A question I would like to ask those that are in the profession or just people who have been through acrimonious divorces.

Friend thinks that her solicitor is not on her side and is talking to the other “side”

I understand that obviously this is what is supposed to happen but when she discusses things with her solicitor certain things which she considers are between the 2 of them are then fed back to her ex.
(Children repeat things told to them by ex)

Is this what supposed to happen?

This is client money and should have gone into the client account. Using client money to pay a bill is a big no no. She needs to complain to the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority.

No that should not happen.

SuperLoudPoppingAction is that about the money or ex getting to know the conversations between friend and her solicitor?

Neither should happen. Client money must be kept separate. Conversations between the client and their solicitor must be kept confidential. However, before doing anything on that front your friend needs to be very sure that this is the only way her ex could find out these things. Is it possible she is talking about them to someone else who is feeding the information to her ex without her knowledge?

No she has kept everything secret.

I am the only one who knows exactly what is going on because I have been writing her statements and supporting her and I haven’t breathed a word to anyone.

Other people know a little but because she suspected that her solicitor was feeding things back to her ex (friends solicitor and ex have links to the same community which wasn’t obvious when she first met the solicitor).
We made up with something to drop into conversation with her solicitor knowing it was just juicy enough to warrant her telling the ex if that was what she was doing. A few days later children repeated back to friend after seeing their father.

I think solicitor thinks friend is stupid and won’t notice what she is doing.