Solicitors📑

What is the role of a solicitor ?

• There are around 130,000 solicitors in England and Wales.

• The majority of solicitors qualify and work within a private practice of a solicitor’s firm, but the other options available are the Crown Prosecution Service and Government departments.

• Solicitor’s firms range from High Street firms to larger commercial sets.

• A solicitors’s work centres on the client.

• The majority of their time is spent writing letters on behalf of clients, drafting legal documents, drawing up wills and dealing with conveyances.

• A solicitor can also represent clients in court, but they only have the rights of audience in the Magistrates’ Court and County Court.

• Under the Courts and Legal Services act 1990 (CALSA) solicitors can now take further training to gain higher rights of audience in order to speak in all courts of the land.

What is the regulation for solicitors ?

• The Law Society is the professional body for solicitors.

• It offers training and advice and lobbies the government to promote the solicitor’s profession.

How is poor service dealt with ?

• A complaint should be first made to the solicitors’s office.

• All firms will have in-house procedures to deal with complaints.

• If the complaint is not dealt with to the client’s satisfaction, they can complain further.

• The Office for Legal Complaints was a established by the Legal Services act 2007.

• It deals with complaints about poor service and complaints about a solicitor’s bill.

• The majority claims are resolved in six months.

• Complaints about poor service can conclude with a reduction in the bill, a payment of compensation or the correction of a mistake and the payment of any costs involved.

• Complaints about a solicitor bill can be checked through a court assessment. This is where the court decides if the bill is fair and reasonable.

• The Legal Ombudsman may investigate if the member of the public has complained and feels the complaint was not adequately dealt with.

• If the Ombudsman agrees that the service received was inadequate, he can ask the solicitor to apologise, return documents, do more work, or refund or reduce legal fees or pay compensation.

How is professional misconduct dealt with ?

• The Legal Services Act 2007 created the Legal Services Board to oversee the work done by the Solicitor‘s Regulation Authority.

• This organisation deals with professional misconduct complaints about solicitors.

• The case can be put before the Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal who can suspend the solicitor, or even strike them off the role.

• The Solicitor’s Regulation Authority is independent from the Law Society and works to ensure that the public receive high standards of service from solicitors.

How can you sue a solicitor ?

• A solicitor enters directly into contract with their client, so if the client does not pay the solicitors fees, the solicitor can sue the client.

• The client can also sue the solicitor for breach of contract if they fail to complete the work.

• A solicitor can also be sued for negligence.

What is the Griffiths v Dawson case ?

• A solicitor was sued for failing to make the correct application in divorce proceedings. The solicitor was ordered to pay the client compensation.

What is the White v Jones case ?

• Someone affected by the solicitor’s negligence can also sue the solicitor. In this case a father wrote to the solicitors to draw up a will to leave each of his daughters £9000 in July, the solicitor had failed to act on the instruction by the time the father died in September. The daughters successfully sued.