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By Anonymous
15 November 2007 16:05
As part of a property purchase for our daughter, my husband and I asked our solicitor to prepare a Trust Deed. He forgot and following an argument we have lost money. Can we sue our solicitor for compensation?
By Yours Legal Expert
Your instruction to prepare a Trust Deed was wise. In cases where you are putting value into someone else's property, you need to protect yourself, either with ownership or with a Trust Deed setting out the rights of the parties. In this case, your daughter would have signed a Trust Deed confirming that although she owned the house, a specified value or equity of the house is held in trust for you.This is an important protection for a number of reasons. It is not just about whom you trust. It is also necessary to provide for death or insolvency. It is a shame you did not follow up your instructions and have it resolved at the time.You asked for work to be done by your solicitor to protect your interests. This was a contract between you, and your solicitor failed to carry out the contract. Hence, you have lost out as a consequence. As with any breach of contract, you have the right to sue for those losses but you will need expert advice. Time limits for court claims can be both strict and tricky, and five years has already elapsed since the original mistake. The claim will go to your former solicitors' insurers who will instruct their solicitors to deal with your claim. The claim will be like all other insurance claims - the insurer will try to terminate the claim as cheaply as possible.They may claim that you compounded the problem by failing to follow up and ensure that this was done at the time. Of course the rejoinder to that is that you should not have to pursue a professional to ensure that they do what they have been asked to do. This should not be an issue. In a contract, it is not for one party to persuade or require the other to abide by the contract and, outside of personal injury, we do not have a doctrine of contributory negligence.
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Can we sue our solicitor?
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jscadden says
It is a total waste of time relying on the Law Society to safeguard your rights. I had an issue recently with my solicitors and contacted the LaSociety to resolve the matter. They agreed I had a claim and advised me how toproceed. When I got back to them after following their advice, I was told that I could not claim as I had gone about it the wrong way! There are more crooks within the legal system than outside. Immediately following this case, I had reason to conduct legal proceedings on a similar issue to that which required I instruct solicitors as in the first case. This time , although involved with the same parties, I decided to represent myself even though OI was advised that I was entitled to Legal Aid, I represented myself. I won the case and was praised by the Judge for my actions.
08 May 2008 23:27
curl says
pHere is an address which will assist you:-/p pLegal Complaints Service/p pVictoria Court/p p8 Dormer Place/p pLeamington Spa/p pWarwickshire/p pCV32 5AE/p p /p pHotline: 0845 608 6565/p pWebsite: Legal Complaints Servicebr / /p
28 April 2008 19:00
