(data ) subject access request; formal request for all information that the firm hold about you, you have to send a PO for £10 and there is as said a 40 day time limit.

I wrote to them last year in 2013, and they failed to reply to the request for the file back then!! Not heard nothing since!!

I wrote to them last year in 2013, and they failed to reply to the request for the file back then!! Not heard nothing since!!

Check your agreement with them. It might say they can withhold your file whilst payment of the bill is outstanding.

they must comply to a SAR or they will get fined.

You must send the PO, then check to see if it has been cashed.

you can complain/report to the Information Commissioner or start a claim in the SCC.

they must comply to a SAR or they will get fined.

You must send the PO, then check to see if it has been cashed.

you can complain/report to the Information Commissioner or start a claim in the SCC.

Failure to comply CAN result in an order to comply and Possibly an order for damages.

There is no fine.

that's what I meant? I think.

Thanks for the replies.

I will leave it to my new solicitors to chase the old firm over the file.

As far as I am aware there are no legal fees outstanding and the bill at the time had been paid in full by a relative.

I will ask my new solicitors that if they dont hear from them or have difficulty in getting hold of the perspn who deals with the files, to put a claim in against the firm anyway.

UPDATE

My new solicitors have to date have had no response from the old firm regarding access to the file.

They have sent the old firm a reminder letter, and tried to make various phone calls to contact them to no avail.

I have been told that if they dont respond by next week, the evidence and claim will be submitted to the new firm's barrister for assessment.

I have provided a 3 page witness statement detailing what the old solicitor failed to do, that they failed to mitigate by way of not sending in a defence bundle before the court trial, not defending me in court proprely, and not raising a complaint to the court about the trial being unfair because of the complainants knowing the magistrate.

I have been already informed that I have a very good claim and it will go against my old firm for ignoring access to the file.

I cannot understand why my old firm wont grant access to the file, it makes me and my new solicitors think there is something wrong in the file that they dont want us to see.

I also might have a further claim against the council for breaching parts 1 to 5 in their ASBO protocol, the fact that they breached my human rights, abused its own policies regarding the fact that they dont get involved in neighbour dispute which it clearly states this on their website!!

Both claims are worth a potential amount of money; I have some debts which need paying off, and I can buy somewhere to live of my own choice.

Its looking good and happy times!!

Thank you for all your advice, it has helped!!

Just be very careful you don't get stung for legal fees by your new firm, lucky7even.

If this is the same issue I remember from a long time ago, your claim sounded quite weak to me. It will be very difficult to challenge the council over an ASBO, and also difficult to prove that you would have won the case if your former solicitor's defended it properly. Obviously listen to the professionals advising on your case but think carefully before putting more money into this.

I contacted a firm of solicitors beginning of July to look into a professional negligence claim against a solicitor I had to employ in July 2010.

So far to date the new solicitors have repeatedly sent at least 4 written requests for the file of papers for assessment, and have left various messages via telephone calls.

As far as I know the old solicitor has of yet made no attempt to respond for access to the file.

My father has shown that he had paid the legal fees by way of sending bank statements.

My claim for professional negligence is that the old solicitors refused my verbal instructions repeatedly (I have a witness who can make a statement to prove this), failure to stop a trial from proceeding on the grounds of it being unfair, damages to reputation as I was splashed all over the front of the local paper, I lost going to court on their advice, failing to put in a defense, and not representing me in court properly.

As a result of loosing, I cannot obtain social housing as a result and so the other claim is that I need to secure enough money to be able to buy somewhere to live.

Does anyone know how much I can exactly claim for?

The claim will be sent to the barrister this week for assessment.

Not done this before so am a bit nervous.

Thank you.

I don't think its possible to give an idea of the size of the claim without knowing what the claim was about and what the amount in dispute was.

The problem with this kind of claim is proving that any wrongdoing by your solicitors actually caused you to have suffered loss. The fact the other side took it to litigation and that the court ruled against you is always an indication that you did not have a 100% sure fire case, so difficult to prove that you would have won if the solicitors acted properly.

Good luck, and listen to the barrister.

It might help if you put this in your original thread rather than start a new one...

Just been told that the papers will be sent to the barrister begining of next week for assessment!!

I have as of today had some paperwork through from my old solicitior.

They have claimed to have sent me a copy of my file of papers.

There are loads missing from the file.

Considering they charged 15 hours preparation costs before trial for preparing papers, no information about the trial has been provided i.e no notes from the barrister, and nothing to say what work was done beforehand.

I feel therefore that the old solicitor are deliberately withholding information regarding the trial itself.

There are no time sheets to prove how they concluded to warrant charging well over £7000 in legal fees, no evidence to show how they costed the file.

As a trained legal secretary myself, the file most certainly does not seem complete in any way!!

What paperwork do you think is missing?

Time recording data would normally be on an electronic recording system rather than on the paper file. The issue of how much you got charged sits slightly separately to the issue of whether they were negligent.

Like I said in my post, there are no notes from the 3 day trial itself, nothing to show what work was done in 15 hours preparation.

There is virtually nothing!!

Threads merged.