Scotland. Lawyer says I instructed her when I didn't

[greenwallsgreyskies]

Name change, and I'm sorry it's so long.

This is in Scotland.

My mother died a few weeks ago. Her nursing home said she'd told them she had a funeral plan but we couldn't find it among her belongings or in her house.
We did find a document saying my mother had lodged various papers with her lawyer so my husband phoned the lawyer to find out if the funeral plan was amongst them (it wasn't).

A week or so later I received a letter from the lawyer enclosing my mother's will (we'd already found her copy at her house) telling me the contents, and saying that the lawyer looked forward to discussing the administration of my mother's estate with me after the funeral. I was a bit taken aback that she'd read the will but since she'd drawn it up for her I assumed it was part of the service and shrugged it off. I also found it pretty tasteless that she was touting for the work of dealing with the estate in such a manner.

There was one specific piece of work I did instruct her to do as my mother had received a fine for something while she was ill and I asked the lawyer to deal with this as her solicitor.

As I am dealing with the estate, a couple of weeks ago I wrote to the lawyer asking for the documents my mother had lodged with her and an indication of how much the estate owes her for dealing with the fine and another thing my mother had asked her to do before she died. I received the documents and a bill which included a charge of almost £500 for accepting my instruction to act as executor, reading the will and writing a letter about the fine.

I absolutely did not and would not ask this person to act as executor or do anything other than the one specific task I instructed. Nor did I ask her to read the will, I already had a copy and I don't need someone to explain the contents to me. I do not like this lawyer on a personal level and I've not been impressed with her in my previous dealings with her. My husband and I have our own solicitor who we do like and trust. I am specified in the will as the sole executor so there was no space for her to appoint herself as executor.

Surely, if she was going to interpret 'do you have document X' as an instruction to act as executor, she had an obligation to tell us as it's impossible to see how she took that interpretation from that question. We never received anything from her confirming that she believed she'd been instructed, any terms and conditions, a contract, or anything to indicate that she was claiming to be executor. She had my address and email address so it wasn't that she wasn't able to contact me. And surely £500 to open an envelope and write a letter is outrageous.

I've been coping really well with everything but this has just totally knocked me and I feel completely helpless - who's going to be believed, a respected partner at a large law firm or me? I'm also scared that challenging it could have negative consequences for us as I assume other lawyers will believe her over me.

I know I need to write and tell her she's not the executor and never was but I feel like I've hit an invisible wall and have no idea how to proceed. I know I'm being pathetic but I don't know how to deal with this.

Sorry about your mum.

if they wrote the will / check if this was included in the t&cs. I worked somewhere where we created wills and this was part of the package.

If this were England the lawyer would not have a leg to stand on. To have accepted you as a client she would have had to write to you to confirm your instructions and give compulsory information about charging, complaints procedures etc. I strongly suspect the rules are similar in Scotland. Check whether the Scottish equivalent to the Law Society has an advice line or similar and talk to them about this.

@KittensNotMittens and @LaGioconda thank you both so much for your replies, they're really appreciated. I'll look into both of your suggestions.

Thank you x

The solicitor would require to examine the will to determine who was nominated as executor to determine if you were entitled to receive the will. Apart from that the solicitor’s conduct seems rather dodgy and you are right to avoid.

You should check that the will does not appoint the solicitor as a compulsory law agent (which it shouldn’t).

There are written formalities about instructing solicitors so it’s not one person’s account against another.

Accepting an instruction to act as executor makes no sense
You are appointed as executor under the Will

The only way the solicitor could be executor would be if they were named in the Will as executor

If she is saying you appointed her to act on your behalf to administer the estate she should have given you a letter of engagement,the first line of which is ‘Thank you for instructing me to act for you’

Write/email and say you did not instruct her and ask for an amended Invoice

I remember one ‘build a bear’ will writing service we used for clients did have an automatic ‘we will act as executor’ in there (it might not even be legal now - this was a hit ten years ago). Maybe it was one of these?

You need to go back to her pointing out that you did have not been issued with a letter of engagement and ask for their complaints procedure. Also have a look at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission website.

FWIW it doesn’t sound like she has appointed herself executor (which is not possible) but that she’s assumed that you as executor were instructing her to administer the estate on your behalf. If you were simply requesting the will (you need the original not a copy) I would not expect a charge to be rendered.

Thank you all very much for these replies, they're really helpful.

@nosalt, good point that she had a duty to check the will before sending it, and I think that's why I assumed it was part of the service of drawing it up and that I shouldn't be charged for her doing so.

The will definitely doesn't appoint the solicitor as an executor or a compulsory law agent.

I have my reply ready to press send on and have been putting off sending it as it's been stressing me out so much. I'm so glad I checked back to see if there were any more replies as I feel completely ready to go now!

Thank you all so much x