Can you report a Solicitors actions to Trading Standards?

[RainingBows]

I feel totally done over by my prior solicitor.

My previous solicitor whom I was advised by a number of people as being 'the best around' locally...was wholly unsupportive and I began to wonder what she was even doing for me.

I realised I could no longer continue to ask my parents to pay the legal bills which seemed to come to 'thousands' upon each invoice. ('Respondent ' in a divorce and financial remedy)

Upon the last invoice; I emailed her to advise her that I could no longer afford this and did not have the finances to pay it and asked what I should do.
She advised she could therefore no longer represent me.
I asked her what payment plans were available and stated I would have no choice but to represent myself.

Then my xH then confirmed 'agreement' toward a financial consent order...

At no point did my solicitor clarify with me if I wanted her to prepare the statement of information.
She literally sent me an email telling me my xH had responded that afternoon and enclosed (already prepared!) was the statement of information reponce that my solicitor had drafted using my Form E (which obviously Id prepared myself).

I asked her to clarify how much it would cost if she was to deal with the consent order to the end and she estimated £2k.

So obviously, I then dealt with the consent order myself, corrosponded with my xHs solicitor myself from that point onward...its now done and dusted.

However my solicitor has just now sent me a bill at nearly £1k! (the week before Christmas argh!!!) and yet my parents had paid her over £2k for the previous to date invoice just prior to the consent order?!

Im gob smacked that a bill of this sum could even be totalled.
She seems to be referring to the fact I didnt make it 'clear' that I no longer wanted her representation! Id have thought she'd have had the damn curtosy to ask me that if it was anything other than uncertain after my emails about this fact!

Im so so angry.
Is there anyway I can argue this?

You asked her to clarify how much it would cost but, when she responded, didn’t tell her that you didn’t want her to go ahead?
Sounds like poor communication all round, you could complain to them and see how they respond..
www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/

Did you properly terminate the agreement in line with the terms laid out in your opening letter?

@SoSickOfItNow No, what happenned was

1. I said I couldnt pay the invoice or continue to pay.
2. She said she could then no longer respresent me. But the same day before I responded to that email - she emailed to say xH had agreed the financial remedy and she had (took it upon herself) to complete the statement of information for me. A form I could have done myself and did not need to be done right away. I had not even seen the consent order.

It was therefore AFTER shed already done this that I then enquired how much would it cost to see the consent order through to the end - to determine if my parents could pay for the solicitors representation or not.
As soon as she said 2K - I declined.

What I am annoyed about is the fact I stated I couldnt pay the invoice, and she then just completed the statement of information form the same day - something that should not have happenned/needed to have happenned in that instance.

You could try trading standards but the SRA regulates solicitors. There is I formation here:

www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/

You do realise £1k is only a couple of hours work for a solicitor? Do you think the work she did shouldn't have taken as long?

There’s a good chance she’d already done that work if it all happened on the same day.

But as per pp, yes £1000 (assuming £1,000 in total with the vat) is probably only about 2-2.5 hours work

If the fee is above what had been properly estimated at the outset then you don't have to pay it.

Also if you terminated her services and didn't instruct her to complete the form, you don't have to pay it.

I suggest you write to the senior partner at her office explaining your position.

Check your letter of engagement.

You can ask for a detailed breakdown of the fees charged and if you dispute the amount charged for the work or don't think the work done was justified by the charged time then you can ask for the file to be assessed. The first step is to notify the firm that you are disputing the fees charged and the bills raised and would like them to be reviewed, if you are still not happy once that has been done you could raise a complaint with the solicitors regulatory authority and finally you could ask for the file to be formally assessed which means the file is reviewed and the fees charged assessed and a decision is made as to whether the bill was fair or not. There are time limits for any appeals so it is important to raise this formally if you genuinely feel you have been overcharged for the work done.

Thanks.
@Fleur405 Does it appear that I have to go through the solicitors complaints procedure first or can I go straight to TS?
My solicitor was a director within the firm I thnk.

@redastherose Thank you.

Call the Legal Ombudsman - this is their area

You will need to go through complaints process first - but call them and they will explain

Just ask the question

“Dear x

Thank you for your email attaching the document. I received this at [x]. I was somewhat surprised to receive this given that I had previously notified you that I would no longer be instructing the firm in this matter since the costs have become prohibitive and I do not feel that I had properly been made aware of the likely overall charges and the amount of work and time involved. It appears that further work was then carried out.

I would be grateful for your confirmation that I will not be charged for this additional work in the circumstances and that you will be closing the file and returning my documentation.

Given the Christmas period and the fact that I do not wish to be worrying about this over the holidays, please confirm the above by return email.

Thank you for your help to date with this matter.

Regards”

Don’t go to the legal ombudsman or the sra yet. You haven’t even asked them what has happened!

You need to go through the firms' complaints procedure first.

Have you responded to the invoice at all? First step is to reply outlining what you have said here and making it clear that you had told her you were no longer able to pay, understood she would no longer represent you and that you did not instruct her to do the further work. It may be that that's enough to resolve it. Hang onto all your correspondence.

You need to follow the firm's complaints procedure first. If you're still not satisfied you go to the Legal Ombudsman. Not trading standards.

Unless the client consents, a solicitor can only stop acting with good reason and on reasonable notice. It sounds like your solicitor may have been correctly continuing to act for you until you told her you would represent yourself, but it is impossible to be sure without knowing exactly what the relevant emails said.

If you want to pursue this, you must start with your solicitor's complaints process. If you aren't happy with the outcome, they will tell you how to refer the case to the SRA and the Legal Ombudsman.

If one of my team had done as you say she did ie carried on with chargeable work after being told you couldn't afford it, my view would be that we should be reversing the bill and writing off the time. I'd have expected them to pause until it was clear you would be paying.

They may be within their rights, but imo it's pretty sharp practice, if it all took place as you have said.

But by your own admissio she had done that work before you told her you didn't want her to act any more. So any work she did before that she can legitimately charge for. She didn't "take it upon herself to reply or to prepare the statement" because at that point she was instructed by you and had the information available to take those steps.

I would just be grateful that the whole thingbks now done and dusted and the divorce etc is over so you can move on.

Complain if you want but they will point out that all work charged for was done prior to being told to no longer acting

Solicitors are required by the sea to have information on their website as to how to complain and who the complaints handler is. You can’t complain direct to SRA unless you’ve been through this first stage of trying to get them to sort it out.

@MrsBertBibby

If one of my team had done as you say she did ie carried on with chargeable work after being told you couldn't afford it, my view would be that we should be reversing the bill and writing off the time. I'd have expected them to pause until it was clear you would be paying.

They may be within their rights, but imo it's pretty sharp practice, if it all took place as you have said.

I agree but it really depends what the OP actually said in her emails.

And when. I just can’t see it being likely that someone has carried on working once told they are no longer instructed. They would know the time couldn’t be billed so unless it was something time critical it’s very likely the work had already been carried out prior to the OP asking them to stop.

I complained to a solicitor that they didn't represent properly or effectively in court & refused to pay all of the bill, I threatened to take it higher I was so mad. She just said "ok just pay half" write a letter to the management of the firm outlining your grievance with dates etc, & that you'd rather resolve it without having to go outside of the company - they hate being the focus of complaints & won't like the suggestion that you're happy to resolve it higher

Just ask for a full breakdown of that bill!
Then you can decided what to do from there, but that is absolutely the first step.