My solicitor then advised me to engage the service of a Solicitor within Northern Ireland with a view to bringing a case to court. I paid my solicitor in the Republic of Ireland his fee of €700 which was slightly excessive to be honest and provided the file to a Belfast based Solicitor and instructed him to bring the case to court ASAP as we had been involved in a war of letters for long enough and it was obvious at this point that no acceptable offer was going to come from the other side.
My Belfast solicitor insisted on writing to the other side a few times with his intensions ect and a few weeks later he contacted me informing me that the other side had been in touch with him asking him to delay issuing proceedings as the other sides solicitor was on holidays.
My belfast based solicitor then contacted me a few weeks later and informed me that a personal friend of his worked for this company who had carried out the poor repairs on my car and he had informed him that this company had now closed and the owner had filed for bankruptcy which ment that my chances of ever seeing a penny was virtually zero. He also told me that he was going to get confirmation of his bankruptcy from the other sides solicitor and the bankruptcy court clerk in Belfast and would be back in touch with me.
All this was between November 2009 and April 2010.
I never heard back from my solicitor again !.. I made around 12 - 14 telephone calls to his office but no calls were returned to me. I also informed the secretary on the first few times I called that I had made my own inquiries and have found out that the story of the other side going bankrupt was infact untrue and they were still trading and had infact opened a second premises, however no calls were returned.
Last week I received a Bill from my Belfast based solicitors for £380 and when I contacted the office to query this I found that the solicitor handling my case had long since left the firm but the firm had neglected to inform me of this in all my unreturned telephone calls.
My problem now is that nearly 3 years has passed and this case should have been listed in the small claims court within weeks. I feel I haven't a hope in hell of winning the case if I continue with it but due to my Solicitors negligence I am down alot of money in regards my initial Rep of Ireland Solicitors fee for preparing the case ect, The Engineers Report and a number of reports made by another garage who specialise in electrical repairs which is what was carried out by the other party.
I feel there is perhaps some conflict of interest of some sorts that perhaps I have not been made aware of as I find the whole situation strange that a solicitor refuses to do what he has been instructed to do which is list the case for a court hearing ..
Do I have any options in regards recouping any money I spend preparing the case such as my initial solicitor fees, engineers report, second opinion reports ect from my negligent solicitor?
My Belfast solicitor insisted on writing to the other side a few times with his intensions ect and a few weeks later he contacted me informing me that the other side had been in touch with him asking him to delay issuing proceedings as the other sides solicitor was on holidays.
My belfast based solicitor then contacted me a few weeks later and informed me that a personal friend of his worked for this company who had carried out the poor repairs on my car and he had informed him that this company had now closed and the owner had filed for bankruptcy which ment that my chances of ever seeing a penny was virtually zero. He also told me that he was going to get confirmation of his bankruptcy from the other sides solicitor and the bankruptcy court clerk in Belfast and would be back in touch with me.
All this was between November 2009 and April 2010.
I never heard back from my solicitor again !.. I made around 12 - 14 telephone calls to his office but no calls were returned to me. I also informed the secretary on the first few times I called that I had made my own inquiries and have found out that the story of the other side going bankrupt was infact untrue and they were still trading and had infact opened a second premises, however no calls were returned.
Last week I received a Bill from my Belfast based solicitors for £380 and when I contacted the office to query this I found that the solicitor handling my case had long since left the firm but the firm had neglected to inform me of this in all my unreturned telephone calls.
My problem now is that nearly 3 years has passed and this case should have been listed in the small claims court within weeks. I feel I haven't a hope in hell of winning the case if I continue with it but due to my Solicitors negligence I am down alot of money in regards my initial Rep of Ireland Solicitors fee for preparing the case ect, The Engineers Report and a number of reports made by another garage who specialise in electrical repairs which is what was carried out by the other party.
I feel there is perhaps some conflict of interest of some sorts that perhaps I have not been made aware of as I find the whole situation strange that a solicitor refuses to do what he has been instructed to do which is list the case for a court hearing ..
Do I have any options in regards recouping any money I spend preparing the case such as my initial solicitor fees, engineers report, second opinion reports ect from my negligent solicitor?