Court claim from old divorce lawyer after circa 18 months.

[psykix]

My wife had a solicitor deal with her divorce proceedings. Long story short, due to bad legal advice she was left struggling to get 23k of debt from her ex-husband. We ditched the solicitor and went it alone - we still haven't recovered the money yet, but insalments are being paid.

 

Anyway, solicitor has tried to charge us for legal representation for them putting right what they screwed up, and also seem to have charged for WAY more letters and phone calls than were actually received.

 

We asked in a face to face meeting for a breakdown of the charges, and were told this would be forthcoming. Circa 18 months or so later, we had heard nothing and then we get a court summons.... They also appear to have charged again for work which we had already paid for.

 

We applied for mediation and sent off a SAR - the solicitors have told the mediators that they will not supply the data requested under the SAR because "it is a lot of paperwork". I really don't think this absolves them of their duties under the Data Protection Act!

 

Anyway, the mediation has now been cancelled (because we didn't see how we could mediate without the requested paperwork) and a hearing date set, however we cannot defend this without the information requested in the SAR.

 

Just wondering the best way to approach this

[psykix]

Thanks for the response - I think our argument is twofold really - had they done their job properly then my wife would have recovered her £23k, which we are still fighting to recover, and secondly, had they done they job properly then the additional legal fees would not have accrued.

 

Wife has just tried making complaint to legal ombudsman as recommended by Bank Fodder in the other closed thread (in debt collection forum), but they won't deal with it as it is over 12 months old.

 

Have already contacted ICO, and are in the process of making a complaint in writing. Also contacted the court and informed them of the claimant's behaviour so far.

 

Bizarre!

[ScarletPimpernel]

If you have properly submitted a SAR (in other words, your letter was very clear that you were making a SAR), then this is a no-brainer. If they fail to comply within 40 calendar days, send them a Letter Before Action giving them a further 7 days to fully comply; if they don't, you can bring a claim in the County Court, and ask the Court to order them to comply, and award damages.

 

In the meantime, you should use the CPR to make them disclose the documents they rely upon. Their are lots of threads here which will show you how to do this.

[ScarletPimpernel]

If you have properly submitted a SAR (in other words, your letter was very clear that you were making a SAR), then this is a no-brainer. If they fail to comply within 40 calendar days, send them a Letter Before Action giving them a further 7 days to fully comply; if they don't, you can bring a claim in the County Court, and ask the Court to order them to comply, and award damages.

 

In the meantime, you should use the CPR to make them disclose the documents they rely upon. Their are lots of threads here which will show you how to do this.

[psykix]

It was extremely clear, it had Subject Access Request written in bold large font as the heading of the letter!

 

We didn't send a fee however, as we understood that no fee was required due to it being the subject of legal proceedings.

 

What's CPR? I'll have to do a search for some info on that, thanks for the pointer!

[psykix]

I've done some reading on CPR, and I at least know what it is now!

 

I'm just a little confused as to what I should be asking for - we basically need a copy of all documentation they hold (as per the SAR they are refusing to provide) because we need to figure out which letters/phone calls we have paid for and which they are trying to charge us for etc..

 

We have sent the 7 day letter, and have the claim drafted should we need to pursue that route to get the SAR.

 

Thanks for all the help!

[42man]

You may find this helpful.....CPR's as you now know are Civil Procedure Rules which can be invoked to provide disclosure of relevant paperwork....I only have a little knowledge of CPR31.14 and these relate to cases on here - they can be quite powerful as cases can be struck out due to non compliance with a party who does not comply to the CPR's, if you post up what the particulars of the claim are on your summons then we may be able to steer you a little more -

 

CPR 31.14 and 31.15

 

What does this apply to?

 

If a party discloses a document by mention of it in amongst others his statement of case, then he has disclosed it and therefore pursuant to rule 31.14 you are entitled to inspect it.

 

Therefore you must follow the guidelines, write to the claimant or defendant, make clear the request is made under CPR 31.14 and request to be allowed to inspect or be provided copies of the document mentioned.

 

This type of request deals with things like credit agreement, default notice, deed of assignment etc which are mentioned in a claim form.

 

CPR 31.15 requires that upon receipt of a request in writing, the claimant must allow inspection of the documents and this must be done in 7 days from receipt of the request, if the claimant refuses then an application Must be made to the court for an order compelling disclosure

 

Also, within such a request, you should also seek an extension of time pursuant to CPR 15.5 to allow you time to receive the documents and review them and then formulate your defence.

 

you cant defend a claim under an agreement if you don't have the agreement as it is simply absurd to suggest you can,so, dont be panicked into putting in what people say is a "Embarrassed defence" as the rules are there to provide you with the tools and info you need to defend a case, you will not face criticism for using the rules by the court, but you will face a huge costs order if you muck around and file spurious and merit-less embarrased defences which have no legal basis.

 

Use the rules properly and you may face a discontinuance notice, use the rules WRONGLY and you will face summary judgement or a charging order or worst a order for sale.

 

For actual letters for requesting info under CPR 31.14 see this thread as it will assist you greatly

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?159445

 

I hope this helps clarify things

[psykix]

Thanks for that info - court date is not until Feb, so I'll wait until after Christmas and then go on the offensive