# What to do about incompetent solicitor?



## Bamhan (22 Dec 2005)

Can anyone tell me what the best way to deal with a solicitor who simply will not do what he is asked?
We are 3/4 of the way through a house purchase with him and he is also dealing with the draw down of a mortgage for a house build.
He has all our papers etc so we cannot pull our business from him.
Is there a complaints proceedure for solicitors who do not do what you ask.
He keeps cheques for weeks at a time before releaseing them.
He has just informed me he has posted us a cheque for 200K knowing full well we won't get it now before Christmas due to Christmas post......
He is so incompetant and is making us look bad in our dealings with people as every single legal requirement e have had of him he has been late completing and I have had to follow him up and call to him a number of times.
I will obviously never use him again but he stands to gain a considerable fee for his supposed services.......
If this were any other type of service I know I would not pay!


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## Riddler (22 Dec 2005)

try here [broken link removed]


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## Sherman (22 Dec 2005)

Why can't you take your papers from him? They're your papers aren't they?

Have you complained to him about his alleged incompetence? In writing? If so and you've had no joy, the next step is to use the [broken link removed] - the mere threat of it may be enough to get him to pull his socks up if indeed he is dragging things out or being inefficient.


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## Bamhan (22 Dec 2005)

Thanks for that.
Yes we have had words and yes I have written to complain.
I could take my papers away in theory but we are lamost there and would I have to pay him for what he has done to date and then pay another solicitor again.
The vendors solicitor has also complained about him and written to him.
Numerous other complaints have been made about him by people I know, my brother also had dealings with him and he kept a cheque from his mortgage provider for three weeks before giving it to the builder.
I will indeed complain him as I feel he is a disgrace to the profession.
I have never come across this with solicitors before and usually use a different solicitor but used him as he is close to where I live and I was off on sick leave when we started our business with him.


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## Riddler (23 Dec 2005)

Good luck and do post back...hope you get on with your complaint...would love to hear of how effective the Law Societies complaints procedure has become,


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## extopia (23 Dec 2005)

Pretend he's a plumber: Fire his ass. Don't pay him. Seriously. Conveyancing is not rocket science. Get another guy to pick up the slack, explaining in advance that you are firing your old solicitor (just to keep the new guy on his toes).


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## ClubMan (23 Dec 2005)

Have you made your dissatisfaction known to the solicitor in question? You should at least do this before pursuing other routes such as the _Law Society _complaints procedure. On the other hand you immediate priority is presumably getting the sale closed without (more) hassle. If the problems that you mention don't have a reasonable explanation then you should probably seek another solicitor for this conveyancing and then pursue the complaint about the original one when you have the time.


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## royrogers (23 Dec 2005)

Also you must remember that solicitors do not like clients that complain and this could be a disadvantage to you when employing another solicitor they will probably charge you from scratch and they do not like taking over other people work therefore they will have to go over it with just to make sure that no mistakes have been made and they will have to take the blame for it!  Be careful remember they know the law and you are just a lay person!


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## Bamhan (23 Dec 2005)

I was a bit stressed yesterday as it was just another stupid error in a whole series of errors being made by this solicitor.
I have asked him to bill me for what we owe him to date and we will take it from there.
He is very aware of how dissatisfied we are with him........

I agree that he knows the law but seems to have absolutely no common sense whatsoever.
Having called to him in the morning on the way to work to tell him I would collect the cheque that evening, having sent him an email, reminding his secretary he still put the cheque in the post yesterday knowing full well with Christmas post we will not get it until after Christmas.
Nothing illegal just plain stupid. He simply will not follow any instructions we give him.
I doubt we would have a case for the complaints board as he hasn't done anything illegal he is just plain dumb in my opinion.
I have calmed down since yesterday and there is nothingwe can do now until after Christmas anyway.
Needless to say I won't be using his services again.
My regular solicitor has agreed to take up where he left off.


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## ClubMan (23 Dec 2005)

Bamhan said:
			
		

> He is very aware of how dissatisfied we are with him........


Have you put your complaints in writing in order to get these on the record?

Can I ask why you chose this solicitor in the first place given that you seem to have another solicitor that you normally use?


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## Bamhan (3 Jan 2006)

Have been off line for Christmas so only answering now.

We used his firm of solicitors and then he moved and set up business on his own and we decided to give him a chance as he was starting off......
Thought for what should be a very straightforward transaction we would have no problems.

We have now parted company with him and are still awaiting a final bill for his services as he has apparently "no idea" what we ow him to date!


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## ribena (3 Jan 2006)

I could swear I know who you are talking about Bamhan but of course I won't swear it in court!  I know someone exactly like the person you are talking about and he just does not care.....he's a law on to himself.  You should report him to the Law Society, the likes of him are bullying clients and should not be allowed to get away with it.  If everyone lets him away with it, he will just continue to carry on that way.  If the Law Society get enough complaints about somebody they will seriously look in to it.  They always inform a solicitor of a complaint made against them but some people are so hard necked they don't let it worry them in the least.  P.S. does his name begin with P???


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## ClubMan (3 Jan 2006)

ribena said:
			
		

> If the Law Society get enough complaints about somebody they will seriously look in to it.


Surely they look into it even if they get one complaint?


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## ubiquitous (3 Jan 2006)

Indeed they do.


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## Bamhan (3 Jan 2006)

TBH I don't think we will go down the road of complaining him as I don't think he did anything illegal?
Is keeping money in your account for a few weeks before handing it over to a builder illegal?
Is it illegal to agree to follow through on things and then leave them sitting untouched for weeks?
The things he has done are incompetant and infuriating but IMO not illegal so not really worthy of the Law Society complaints procedures.
I think we will consider it a lesson learnt and be a bit slower in 'giving the new kid a chance'
Ribena I don't think he is the same person.


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## ClubMan (3 Jan 2006)

You said above that he was well aware of your dissatisfaction with his performance but you never said if you had put these complaints in writing. Have you done this?


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## Vanilla (3 Jan 2006)

I could swear I know the person in question too- is he in Limerick by any chance? 
I agree with ClubMan, if you havent already done so, make your complaint in writing to him. There is no excuse for incompetence, and you are paying for his services so are entitled to expect a minimum level of same. At the very least ask for a reduction in the fee commensurate with the level of problems you detail.


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## Bamhan (3 Jan 2006)

yes Clubman we put our dissatisfaction in writing and i assume he will file this or bin it and forget it.
Vanilla I had better not say his location.......


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## ClubMan (3 Jan 2006)

Bamhan said:
			
		

> yes Clubman we put our dissatisfaction in writing and i assume he will file this or bin it and forget it.


I take it from that that he did not respond in writing or otherwise?


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## Bamhan (3 Jan 2006)

Yes he responded by phone but obviously we can have no record of a telephone conversation.
AS far as he is concerned he did nothing wrong.
He reckons he posted items to our lending institution for example which got 'lost in the post' and tried to convince me I had signed two copies of the same letters of offer so he was able to send in the duplicates three weeks later without the need for the leters of offer to be re-issued.

It is really a case of being in over his head as far as I can see and no particular malice on his behalf.
He seems genuinely shocked when we question him.
TBH we have done the large part of the work ourselves.
I have dealt directly with the bank manager and also with the legal team for the vendor in one situation and with land registration in another matter.
HE still will have a bill no doubt.....
Can we query this and offer to pay the amount we consider reasonable?
I doubt very much that we can.


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## ribena (3 Jan 2006)

You should definitely write to him and tell him that you are extremly disappointed with the service he offered you and that you had some other business lined up that you were hoping for him to look after but you will have to reconsider.  If he thinks there is more work coming his way he might buck up a bit.  I would query the bill, you can't obviously dictate what you're willing to pay but let him know that you would hope that he would allow you a discount in light of all that happened.  As for the documents that he says you signed previously, the guy I know would say the exact same thing, would leave things on the long finger or misplace something and then he would sign things himself in the clients name and send them off to speed things up.  Are you sure he's not east of Limerick, heading for Dublin????


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