Hi Following extremely poor service, I withheld £3,500 of the final bill pending discussion (total bill is £16,000). My Solicitor then issued me with a Court Order for the recovery of this plus interest without any attempt to discuss what my complaints were.
I approached the Legal Complaints Service who have upheld part of my complaint, deeming it to be "serious to significant" but the Court case is 5th Sept so I don't know if it's better to go before a Judge who might be more in my favour? The LCS seem to favour the Solicitor and are suggesting a reduction of £1500 as being "fair" but as most of it relates to being overcharged I don't think this is enough. Any ideas please??

Did you complete your solicitor's own complaints procedure?

Yes but it was a strange situation as there were only 2 partners so no-one higher to complain to. The person I was complaining about was the person dealing with the complaint!!

Hi all
This could be not only an interesting thread but a very helpful one. The service we have received from our solcitior has been poor. The first solicitor dealing with the case (same sols as we are with now) mysteriously was made 'redunant' and looking back over the case, there were a few things that could have been handled differently in the early stages, as it happens those decisions then sparked off a domino effect and has dragged everything out far longer than it should.
There are many things that we are not happy about.
We do have email evidence of displeasure sent at the time.

Anyone please give some advice on how to go through a complaints procedure. We did send one letter of complaint, and the company offered, we could pay, either one year from the date of that letter 11thApil 2008 or when the fmh was sold.
That would indicate to me that they were aware that things were not dealt with adequately. Any ideas on that?
We are drafting another letter at the moment.

Perhaps anyone in the know would like to help us on this one.
many thanks

Hi Further to my posting, it might be useful to look at www.divorce-solicitor-trap.co.uk which was set up by a lady who sued her own Solicitor and won! I personally have found the Legal Complaints Service lacking - they were too busy so passed my complaint on to a firm of Solicitors who seem to be on the side of my Solicitor, despite her being in breach of the Solicitors Code of Conduct!
I have been told that I can ask for my complaint to go back to the LCS if I am not satisfied - and then you can always go to the Ombudsman to investigate.
Be interested to hear from others in this type of dilemma. Debs

I complained to my solicitor cos they were useless and they overcharged.

I guess i expected them the deal with the complaint like any other organisation - e.g tescos or a bank etc.

But they just ignored it totally.

The bill was around 1200 quid and i really felt should only have been 800 max - so just wanted them to shave a little off the inflated bill.

But they just immediately went into legal mode (well they are lawyers!!) and pursued me through the courts.

It eventually resulted in them applying to have my house repossessed.

This was in the full knowledge that the terms of the divorce being negotiated left the whole house to my ex. So it wasn't really mine anyway.

So they i guess realised they needed to rush to court to get the house before my ex did.

I fought all the way but finally when a repossession order was imminent i borrowed the money off my parents to pay them their 1200 quid.

So that is the story of why DBNO is no big fan of solicitors

I was once involved in a complaint against solicitors (although not to do with divorce) - they were provably negligent but, as has been said, the complaint was dealt with by other solicitors, who seemed to see it as an attack on their profession, and behaved accordingly, rather than an 'attack' on the poor work of one individual (and you get that in any profession, so not a reflection on everyone doing the same job...) The result was not worth the effort of the complaint...

It does make me angry, as I believe the vast majority of solicitors are hard working and compassionate people but their profession is tainted by a small number, who seem to be able to get away with appalling behaviour... not fair to the many good ones...