Have I got a claim?
If you are unfortunate enough to experience poor service from a bad solicitor, or receive bad legal advice, you may have the right to seek compensation. We can advise you as to the best way of seeking redress. If your solicitor is guilty of professional misconduct (he or she has contravened the rules of professional conduct that apply to solicitors), rather than just professional negligence, it may be that the best way to seek justice is to pursue a complaint based on the poor service that you have received, rather than pursuing a negligence claim through the courts. If a solicitor is found to have provided poor, or inadequate, professional service, the Legal Complaints Service has the power to order the solicitor to pay you compensation of up to £15,000.
In addition, it can order a solicitor to reduce the fees being charged. Obtaining compensation by pursuing a poor service complaint, rather than a professional negligence claim, is often the best way of obtaining some compensation in cases in which the loss suffered is quite small (less than £5,000), or when there are obvious breaches of the rules of professional conduct, because you will not need the help of a solicitor so (apart from your own time spent) the process is completely free. On the other hand, if you instruct a solicitor to pursue the same complaint as a professional negligence claim you may incur substantial legal costs with the risk that if you lose, you may also be liable for your former solicitor's costs too.
When deciding which is the best way to obtain compensation from a bad solicitor, it is important to understand the difference between "negligence" and "misconduct". The Legal Complaints Service will only investigate complaints about poor service rather than allegations of negligence. Sometimes a complaint can be both. For example, if a solicitor fails to advise you about the likely costs that will be incurred if you instruct him or her. Since September 1999 it has been a mandatory requirement for a solicitor to advise clients in writing about the likely costs that will be incurred. Failure to give that advice is a breach of rules of professional conduct and the Legal Complaints Service is likely to impose a penalty on any solicitor who fails to comply.
The advice must also be reasonably accurate. If a solicitor provides a costs estimate that is then exceeded, by more than a permissible margin of error (usually about 15%), there is a good chance that because of his inadequate advice his bill will be reduced back to the level of the initial estimate, without the need to prove negligence. Sometimes, poor costs advice, or poor legal advice about the merits of a case, can have disastrous consequences for the client which can only be put right by pursuing a solicitor's negligence claim. For example, if you are told that you have a very strong case and it will cost £20,000 to bring the case, but half way through you are told that the £20,000 has already been spent and actually the case is going to cost £100,000, it may be that you are then forced to drop the case because it is simply unaffordable. In those circumstances, you could have ended up with substantial wasted costs and if it can be shown that the solicitor's poor costs advice was also negligent, it may be best to pursue a professional negligence claim against the solicitor who provided the poor costs advice.
In order to win such a negligence claim it would, of course, be necessary to show that if accurate advice about the likely costs that would be incurred had been given, that the claim would not have been pursued. This is proving what is known as "causation" and in many instances it can be quite difficult to prove that the bad advice actually made any difference at all to the client's decision to pursue the claim (because, for example, the file shows that the client was always determined to have his or her day in court regardless of the cost!).
Even in "No win - No fee" cases (cases funded through a conditional fee agreement) in which the solicitor is only paid by the client if the case is won, good costs advice is essential. "No win - No fee" does not mean free and it is possible for the client to "win" and still be liable for costs that exceed the damages recovered and thus end up substantially out of pocket. Also, if the case is lost then although as there was no "win" there is no "fee" payable to the solicitor, there will probably be a liability to pay the opponent's legal costs of the case. It is therefore important to have insurance against that risk. We have advised a number of clients in connection with claims against solicitors who have negligently failed to properly advise them about the need to insure against the risk of being liable for the opponent's costs. Such advice should be given regardless of how the claim is being funded in any case in which the client may end up being liable for an opponent's legal costs and not just in respect of "No win - No fee" cases.
Many people still think that one solicitor will not bring a claim against another negligent, or even dishonest, solicitor. There are still some solicitors who believe that is exactly as it should be, but for our part we are quite fearless in our pursuit of claims against solicitors, and other professionals, and we will always endeavour to give you the best possible advice as to best way to seek justice and/or compensation. If you think that you have a claim because you have received bad legal advice then do not hesitate to contact us to see whether we can help.
If you answered yes to only some of the above questions, you may still have a claim, and should contact us so we can discuss your claim further.