Enigma client Ken English has recently been successful in making a claim against his former solicitors for negligence. Ken had instructed solicitors previously to represent him in court proceedings and he had been unhappy with the terms of settlement of that case. After discussing the matter further with those solicitors, he then instructed Rory Smith of Enigma to look into things further.
“Initially, I had a free chat with Enigma. They then obtained the files from my previous solicitors and they very quickly identified grounds for making a claim against my former solicitors and wrote to them on my behalf. My former solicitors did not accept responsibility and we had to start court proceedings but shortly afterwards we achieved what I think is a very good settlement. Enigma acted for me on a no win no fee basis and I was very happy with what they did for me. They had a very firm direction with my claim and were very pro-active. I felt like I was in safe hands and I would recommend Enigma to anybody considering making a claim against their solicitors.”
Making a claim against your solicitor for compensation is something of a ‘taboo’ subject for many people, solicitors and clients alike. At Enigma we are trying to change that culture and we believe that by doing so we are helping to boost confidence in the legal profession.
In modern society, as consumers we tend to question increasingly the quality of the services that we receive, whether it relates to our health, finances, or anything else. Legal services should be no different. (Almost) everyone makes a mistake at some point and because of the significant and often complex matters that solicitors handle for their clients, if a solicitor is negligent when acting for you, the consequences can be drastic.
We have considerable experience in the field of solicitors negligence and in all cases our aim is to put things right as soon as possible.
You can potentially make a claim against your solicitor for compensation in relation to any matter on which you received legal services. For example, we have acted for clients who have made claims against their solicitors in relation to alleged negligence by their solicitor during residential conveyancing, criminal proceedings, employment tribunal proceedings, business disputes, commercial property, probate, personal injury claims, divorce proceedings and even when a solicitor was suing another solicitor for negligence.
It is not always obvious that you are entitled to make a claim against your solicitor for compensation. Sometimes there are clear indicators; for example, if your solicitor has missed an important deadline or if the outcome of your case is the opposite of what you had set out to achieve. In many cases, it is not so straight forward. Clients are often concerned when, for example, their solicitor :
- changes the advice mid-way through a case or gives advice mid-way through the case that could have and should have been given to you much sooner;
- is increasingly difficult to contact and does not return your calls;
- fails to answer your questions about your case, when asked;
- significantly increases your costs estimate during the case without good reason;
- advises you to settle your case for much less than was originally planned.
Any of these concerns, and many others that we have not listed, may or may not be a real cause for concern. Solicitors nowadays generally pride themselves in providing a friendly / fast / efficient / transparent service and if your solicitor is doing his/her job, you should not have concerns such as those identified above. If you do, one option is to start by raising your concerns with your solicitor either informally or through the firm’s formal complaint policy. All firms are required to have a formal complaint policy and you are entitled to a copy of the policy. If that does not resolve your concerns, you are entitled to consult the Legal Ombudsman, which provides a free and impartial service to all clients who have concerns about the service that they have received from their solicitor.
An alternative course of action is to seek specialist legal advice from a professional negligence solicitor. If you do not owe your solicitor any money you are entitled to obtain your file from the solicitor. If you cannot obtain your file, you may still have many documents that will enable a professional negligence specialist to advise you.
In many cases, we are prepared to the documents and give you our initial views about making a negligence claim against your former solicitor on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis.
In many of the claims that we have handled we would say at the start our clients were disappointed or disillusioned about the legal profession generally. Often, clients are doubtful that any other solicitor would be prepared to help them make a claim against another solicitor, or thought that the ‘system’ generally would make it too difficult to make a claim or that it would cost too much. We have successfully concluded a large number of solicitors negligence claims and in many cases believe that our clients have developed a much more positive attitude about the legal system and about solicitors in general. We derive immense personal and job satisfaction from achieving such an outcome for our clients.
Hannah Slade has joined Enigma Solicitors as a litigation executive.
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