Hello - I made appointments with 4 solicitors for free advice about my divorce, one of them carried on chatting away after the the free alloted time. She didn't mention I was going into paid time, and now I have received a bill for £135. So far I have seen 6 solictors on this basis and all have outlined what they can offer me, and given free advice. But this one solicitor decided to charge me. Is there anything I can do?

Well I can't remember exactly but I just pointed out that the demands they were making were illegal, and they were failing to comply with legal process. To be honest I expected them to just keep on sending me letters, they really don't seem to care if their methods are illegal or not.

Hi - well since I last had to threaten them over these absurd letters they have left me alone and are behaving in the way they are supposed to. I have defered my loan as usual and no letters from them demanding monies not owed for over a year, it's a miracle. They are such a shambles though that its surely only a matter of time.Good luck with your claim, stick with it and don't give in to them.

I agree, it's about sharing the resourses and playing the system in this way is a bit harsh on your fellow students.

So now having recieved and returned my annual deferment forms, sent by recorded delivery, I have a letter from 'Cash Collection Agency' demanding £400 from me on behalf of SLC. I don't owe them a penny and am getting so damned sick of this, surely someone must be accountable. How do I get them off my back, more to the point why should I even have to.

Thanks for the advice, it's very much appreciated.

Oh yes, all of that stuff was paid up and sorted out. I didn't hear from them for ages apart from one letter which didn't have the charges removed in the balance of the account. I wrote to them and they amend it accordingly. This is more about the fact they are ignoring telephone harrassment letters, as I said I do owe them a small amount but have stated twice by letter to them that I don't wish to be contacted by telephone. The callers refusal to give me his name or put me on to a superviser really angered me.

So now they have started contacting me at work, I've sent them a letter stating that I don't wish to be phone at work sent recorded delivery. They phoned again today and said they havn't recieved it, post office records unsuprisingly state they have. So I ask the caller for his full name and he refuses to give it to me, then I ask to speak to his supervisor and he refuses that stating he does not have to do either of these things. Surely this is extremely dodgy, I have sent them the standard phone harrassment letter twice. I do not wish to be contacted by these muppets by phone. I do owe them a small amount of money from when I had no home address many years ago, and defered several months late. They refused to take mitigating circumstances into account.

Hi noomill060 - well the removed the charges as requested by me, they actually just send a letter stating charges = £0.00. They didn't even apologise or acknowledge an error had been made, awfull people.

Update on this case, basically I was advised by the county court to write to SLC and ask for them to write back within 2 weeks stating that the admin charges had been removed from my account as agreed in the out of court settlement. What a suprise, 2 weeks went by with no letter. I wrote to the court and now they have reinstated the case with a court date early next year. All of this makes me feel nervous but I can't let them get away with it.

Sorry i should have said charges for letters they'd sent, basically they refunded about £284 of which some was a refund for payments I had made to pay off these charges and the interest I'd claimed. That left outstanding charges added to my loan for letters received by me of about £336, these are the charges that I asked (they agreed in writing) to be removed.

No they refunded fees I had already paid and the interest I claimed, also (just checked) they agreed to 'remove' £336 in charges from my account. The cheque I recieved only covered the refunded fees and interest. I have it in black and white and various saved emails.

No, what am i missing?

Yes thats right, I withdrew the claim and signed the consent form. I recieved a cheque for the correct amount and hadn't heard anything from them in months. I'll contact the solicitor tomorrow and insist that the SLC send me a letter stating that these charges have been removed.

Yes its all in writing thats for sure, I have all the letters and even emails I had with their solicitor. I could just do without the stress but would also like them to suffer some pain for continualy behaving like they are above the law, or indeed bloody useless.