Looking for some advice on this for my boyfriend - does he have any recourse?
My boyfriend was in court today on a driving charge. He had a solicitor and barrister acting for him.
The solicitor sent him a letter a few wks ago saying he'd be there and looking for the rest of the invoice to be paid. Total was about 2500, 1000 was already paid. My boyfriend explained he was waiting on money to come through and would pay him when he received it.
He phoned the solicitor at 9:40 this morning, they arranged to meet at 10am at the court. By 10:25 there was no sign of solicitor or barrister, so BF phoned him. He was told that they wouldnt be showing up at he hadnt paid all the money. (this was just decided by solicitor and barrister that morning).
This was the 5th time in court and the case was due to be heard today.
My boyfriend had only met with solicitor once for 15 minutes. The solicitor only attended one of times the case was up in court, and on one occasion a bench warrant was issued as court thought BF wasn't there. He had to stand up and speak for himself.
Today judge was very sympathetic, pushed case back to December, and said that solicitors were doing this too often. BF has had to take a lot of time off work.
So my boyfriend is now looking for someone new to represent him. We weren't impressed with solicitor up to this. Can he look for some of the money back? Can we complain to the law society?
Thanks!
My boyfriend was in court today on a driving charge. He had a solicitor and barrister acting for him.
The solicitor sent him a letter a few wks ago saying he'd be there and looking for the rest of the invoice to be paid. Total was about 2500, 1000 was already paid. My boyfriend explained he was waiting on money to come through and would pay him when he received it.
He phoned the solicitor at 9:40 this morning, they arranged to meet at 10am at the court. By 10:25 there was no sign of solicitor or barrister, so BF phoned him. He was told that they wouldnt be showing up at he hadnt paid all the money. (this was just decided by solicitor and barrister that morning).
This was the 5th time in court and the case was due to be heard today.
My boyfriend had only met with solicitor once for 15 minutes. The solicitor only attended one of times the case was up in court, and on one occasion a bench warrant was issued as court thought BF wasn't there. He had to stand up and speak for himself.
Today judge was very sympathetic, pushed case back to December, and said that solicitors were doing this too often. BF has had to take a lot of time off work.
So my boyfriend is now looking for someone new to represent him. We weren't impressed with solicitor up to this. Can he look for some of the money back? Can we complain to the law society?
Thanks!