Dispute with childminder-does anyone know an experienced solicitor in London?

[LucyLu10]

My childminder verbally told me she couldn't cope with my child (and clearly couldn't)and less than 3 weeks into the renewed contract said she would not have her any more. Due to my child's distress and the childminders comments and attitude I stopped sending her, and she now says I owe her money because I didn't give the correct notice period. I have no paper evidence of what she said and she seems to have the law on her side.She is going to take me to county court. Has anyone had any experience of something similar and know of a solicitor who could help? I've been to Citizens advice bureau already.

If it's for less than £5,000 it'll be dealt with under the Small Claims procedure, which means neither side usually uses solicitors as it's not worth it.

Most London sols will charge in the region of £200 an hour so it may not be worth instructing anyone.

If you signed a contract then didn't give her enough notice, then usually you would be considered to be in breach of contract and liable to pay for that period. However, the opposite is also true, in that she should have given you notice that she wasn't going to be able to look after your child.

In other words, if she said, I can't look after your child any more but will serve 1 months notice as in the contract, and you then take your dtr out immediately, then you should pay.

If she didn't give you adequate notice, then you shouldn't.

This again

I'm not a lawyer lucy, hopefully someone will be along who is, but I'm guessing this can't be about all that much money, and would be in the small claims court, which is for claims less than £5,000.

IIRC you can't claim legal fees if you win in the small claims court so it may well be cheaper to just pay her the notice and write it off as experience rather than forking out on a solicitor, then risk losing as well.

I'm sure someone else will be along to help anyway.

ooh x-posts

Still not getting it Lucy!

She gave you a verbal warning that she would be terminating the contract in (however many weeks her contract states). You choose to remove your lo immediately, without honouring the notice period. Is that right? What did she say that promted you to remove your lo immediately?

I am a solicitor, but not in this area, so its a fairly basic opinion. Agree not likely to be worth paying for a solicitor for this and small claims designed to be dealt with by people without lawyers.
I think that if you can convince the court that your CM said she couldn't cope with your child and you felt she couldn't then she was effectively terminating the contract immediately. No one would send their child to someone who said they couldn't care for them therefore admitting they weren't capable of carrying out their part of the contract. If you spoke to anyone about the situation at the time you could try producing witness statements from them.