Legal Aid

[Ma79rie]

My children have a solicitor acting for them in a will dispute. At their first appointment with him he said he was applying for legal Thtey were 16 and 19. Many weeks later when the will dispute was being settled tthe solicitor said he had not applied for legal aid as he didn't have the time to do it. He has not kept them updated with costs. He has not presented a bill. An interim payment for my son is now held by this solicitor who by e mail has asked my son to pay his account to date including the account for my daughter payment. My son has e mailed him to say he wants his intetrim money and that he has never agreed that the fees can be deducted from this. There is a further sum for both children to come from the estate. The solicitor refuses to pay my son his money. Any comments would be appreciated.

[ummmm]

Depending on the sum of money involved even if they did get legal aid they might be asked to pay it back anyway.

[bednobs]

umm is right - if legal aid is applied for for a case involving money, the legal aid has to get paid back out of the settlement anyway (not sure about children though)
i think it sounds pretty reasonable that the solicitor wants his money out of this interim payment, after all he has done all the work!
it was silly of both your son and the solicitor not to set out terms before

[ummmm]

It does depend on the sum involved though. I think anything under 15k and you won't be asked to repay legal aid.

[Ma79rie]

Thanks for your comments. The solicitor has never given a bill or given updates on costs. He has also undertaken work for the estate using a barrister passing all costs to son and daughter without 1st consulting them.

[Barmaid]

Whoah, just a cotton picking minute. If you "settled" will dispute on behalf of a minor, how exactly did it settle? Was there an infant approval hearing? A judge is extremely unlikely to approve any settlement if he knows that the costs are to come out of a minor's share. Any settlement involving a child or patient requires the approval of the Court under CPR Part 21.

[themas]

Taking only the information you have given, it seems the solicitor may well have acted incorrectly:--

1. Not applying for legal aid when he presumably knew it was likely to be granted (otherwise, why would he have said he was going to do so?)

2. Not issuing any engagement letter with an indication of fee basis and the likely cost.

3. Engaging a barrister without client authorisation.

4. Demanding money without issuing an account.

Write a formal letter to the Complaints partner of the firm, & if the case is not resolved to your satisfaction go to the Law Society complaints procedure.

Note that what another poster says about legal aid having to be paid back may be correct, but if a solicitor is doing work on legal aid his hourly rate is often a lot less than for his other work so the amount the client would have to pay would be less than if legal aid is not obtained.

Note also that I hope none of this detracts from what Barmaid has posted. As a barrister, she clearly knows what she is talking about & the questions she has raised need to be looked into.