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Solicitor claiming costs after claim being dismissed by court


anne21
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Hi all, just after some advice..

 

i had an accident back in 2019 and the claim has been on going since then.

 

On December 6th 2021, i attended court and was advised by my barrister to discontinue the claim. At this point, the judge decided to dismiss the whole claim. My barrister i didnt have to pay any costs to either the other party or my solicitor (as it was no win no fee).

 

However few days ago I received a letter from my solicitor asking me to pay her costs under the conditional fee agreement otherwise she will get pursue her costs from debt recovery. Now im confused and dont know where i stand.

 

Can anybody help me with this situation?  

 

Regards

anne

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A conditional fee agreement or CFA is an agreement with a legal representative which provides for his or her fees and expenses, or any part of them, to be paid only in certain circumstances - usually only if the client wins the case.

 

Check the small print of your agreement.

 

Andy

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Won't it depend on exactly what @anne21 means by:

 

44 minutes ago, anne21 said:

... On December 6th 2021, i attended court and was advised by my barrister to discontinue the claim. At this point, the judge decided to dismiss the whole claim...

 

If the OP did discontinue the claim (it's not clear to me if they did discontinue it or if they simply lost the case) without their solicitor's agreement, then won't they almost certainly be liable to pay their solicitor's to date expenses?

 

(There's a whole unresolved thread about this here:  

 

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I read it as the OP didn't get chance to discontinue the claim and the judge dismissed the whole claim irrespective. Discontinuance of a claim would only affect the opposing party not its own counsel assuming CPR 38 was applicable and the claim exceeded 10K.

 

 

.

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Yeah.

 

I suppose I was wondering why the OP bothered to mention being advised to discontinue the claim if they never had a chance to do so before the court dismissed it anyway.  The advice to discontinue is sort of irrelevant if it never happened.

 

I wonder if there's some miscommunication/wrong end of the stick at play here.  Or maybe their solicitor is just trying it on... 

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'debt recovery' 

- if they mean a powerless debt collection agency, then totally ignore them, they are not bailiffs ever!

 

sounds like a sore loser barrister here, which most of them are as they are purely ambulance chasers that make all the right noises to a client when the case is on going, but whinge like made when they lose, 

 

how did you ever get involved with them in the 1st place?

  • I agree 2

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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 i was involved in a car accident which wasnt my fault. And the other party were not accepting liability either.  it ended up going to court.

 

When i attended the trail i had a barrister sent from my solicitors to represent me. At this trail i was told my evidence for the case wasnt strong enough and that i would lose the case so was advised to discontinue.

 

My barrister  and the other barrister both came to a mutual decision to discontinue.

 

When they approached the judge he decided to completely dismiss the case with no costs.

 

My barrister turned around and said to me that because the judge had dismissed the case i didnt have to pay my solicitor a single penny. 
 

I want to write an email to her saying that i was told i didnt have to pay you anything but dont know how to phrase it..I

any help would be appreciated.

 

Thank you

 


 

 

Edited by dx100uk
added A few blank lines only..dx
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Who appoint the solicitor and the expensive barrister, was this a recommendation from your motor ins company?

 

Dx

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Right so you put yourself in this position and that sols should have advised you properly that your evidence is not strong enough, let alone employ a barrister to try it on infront of a judge.

 

have you got a copy of the agreement you signed and was your claim +£10k?

 

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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On 30/12/2021 at 22:28, anne21 said:

No that claim was not more than £10k. Il try and find it and post it here

 

I cant find the agreement letter but i have attached a copy of the letter I received

 

I write following the hearing that took place on the 6' December 2021.

 

You made the decision on the day of the hearing to discontinue your claim. The Judge dismissed the claim with no order to costs. Therefore you were not ordered to pay the Defendants costs, however I await sight of the Court order to confirm this outcome.

 

In accordance with our Conditional Fee Agreement I am therefore entitled to seek recovery of my costs and disbursements from you. However I am willing to limit these to just the Outstanding disbursements if immediate payment is arranged. If I have no option but to transfer this file to our Debt Recovery Department, I reserve the right to recover both my costs and disbursements,

 

The outstanding disbursements are as follows:-

 

Engineer's report fee:

€60.00

Court fee:

£255.00

Counsel's tees:

£862.50

Medical report fee:

€216.00

Medical addendum report fee:

£96.00

 

Total:

£1,489.50

 

I would be most obliged if you could contact me to discuss payment. I am prepared to consider a monthly repayment plan.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

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pers i'd keep looking for it unless you want to name these fleecers and we can see if they have them on their website, as they usually do.

 

until or unless you get a formal letter of claim id ignore.

 

YOU didn't discontinue the claim, the judge did.

 

dx

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Judge dismissed it, not discontinued...a judge cant discontinue a claim only the claimant..

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  • 4 weeks later...

Since then I’ve received another letter mimicking the same thing which I’m just ignoring aswell.. erm petherbridge bassra solicitors

Edited by dx100uk
unnecessary previous post quote removed
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Just as a point of interest, there was a somewhat similar long-running thread on here where the OP HAD actually discontinued their claim and their solicitors did end up suing them.  Opinion on here was divided as to whether the OP had a good case or not (I didn't think she did... ) but she came back last week to say the judge had decided in her favour and had kicked the solicitors' case out!  (See link below).

 

The circumstances are different here, but if the judge dismissed the claim I would think this OP had an even stronger case and I don't see how the solicitors would be able to sue.  I assume the order must say the judge dismissed the claim and if I were the OP I would point this out to the solicitors at the earliest opportunity.

 

Would still be nice to see actual T&Cs though...

 

 

Edited by Manxman in exile
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Well the Solicitors would not be able to raise a " Costs Only " claim in their own name because costs were never agreed pre proceedings.

CPR 46.14

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what should I do?

Keep ignoring the letters or respond back?

 

Because they are threatening to get debt collection agency involved and I don’t want the costs to rise and ending up having to pay out

Edited by dx100uk
unnecessary previous post quote removed
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5 hours ago, anne21 said:

So what should I do? Keep ignoring the letters or respond back? Because they are threatening to get debt collection agency involved and I don’t want the costs to rise and ending up having to pay out

Ignore any dca 

 

On 29/12/2021 at 13:20, dx100uk said:

'debt recovery' 

- if they mean a powerless debt collection agency, then totally ignore them, they are not bailiffs ever!

 

sounds like a sore loser barrister here, which most of them are as they are purely ambulance chasers that make all the right noises to a client when the case is on going, but whinge like made when they lose, 

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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On 03/02/2022 at 12:51, mantis shrimp said:

If you have not already done so, you might ask the solicitors to explain to you the grounds on which they consider themselves entitled to make these demands, and to provide copies of all documents on which they rely.

I did what you said and this was her reply.

 

Afternoon 

 

I will be seeking instructions from our Barrister, however in any event it is not for any other person to provide such advice on our costs. 

 

We set out our reasons in our correspondence and we have discussed the possible costs consequences on numerous occasions with the client, the client agreement entitles us to seek recovery of our costs and disbursements. However we have limited these to our disbursements only, if this continues to debt recovery we will seek our full costs. 

 

I am happy to discuss this further with Adeel on his return 

 

Kind regards 
 

   


 
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On 04/01/2022 at 10:50, Andyorch said:

Judge dismissed it, not discontinued...a judge cant discontinue a claim only the claimant..

 

On 28/01/2022 at 11:21, Andyorch said:

Well the Solicitors would not be able to raise a " Costs Only " claim in their own name because costs were never agreed pre proceedings.

CPR 46.14

nothing they can claim.

 

just send silly threat-o-grams and dca's are powerless. trying to mug you IMHO!

 

send them the above 2 quotes!!

 

dx

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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This was her response.

 

The defendants are not seeking costs 

 

We are seeking recovery of our unrecoverable disbursements as agreed in our CFA and numerous correspondence.

 

If you lose you will not have to pay your opponents costs unless any of the conditions listed in section 10 of the document "CFA: What You Need to Know" apply. If you lose you do not pay our charges but we may require you to pay our expenses and disbursements if you do not have any insurance. You may choose to take out an insurance policy to cover your liability for such charges After the Event (ATE).

 

 

Kind regards

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but it wasn't agreed and she did not lose.. the judge dismissed the case as per andyorch's link.

 

pers i'd ignore them now

 

 

On 28/01/2022 at 11:21, Andyorch said:

Well the Solicitors would not be able to raise a " Costs Only " claim in their own name because costs were never agreed pre proceedings.

CPR 46.14

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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