Slow solicitor. Advice, please.

Hello all.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with solicitors taking days to respond or act on your case.

I have a very urgent case with my ex trying to take the children out of the country while denying me contact with them.

I asked her to file for a Contact Order and also write a letter to their school to release information about them to me, since I have PR and they refuse to do so.

We discussed about this on Friday. I wrote her the letter she told me to do on Sunday and I Still haven''t heard anything from her.

Is this normal or am I being put on hold until more important cases are delat with?

I would appreciate any advise, as I am starting to get worried...

Unfortuinately this is how most work. What is important and urgent for you, isnt for them, unfortunately.
The next person they see after you has an urgent situation, the person after that and so on.
I aint making a case for them, you pay a lot of money per hour, god, I wish I was on half, but I guess they are overwhelmed, which doesnt help you, but you know, my calendar''s quote today is;
''one has to resign oneself to being a nuisance to get anything done''... how true in many ways.

My son has used two solicitors. They were both fairly slow at answering letters etc. The one my son is using now is brilliant. However, she never answers e-mails and very rarely telephones.

She proved her worth around Christmas however, when my son''s ex. tried to make an unjustified Ex Parte application.

She was like grease lightening and her feet didn''t the ground. My son would have been lost without her speedy intervention. She may not answer his e-mails but my son puts a high value on her expertise.

The one thing that a solicitor will not say to you is "you are not my only client" although this is always the case as a solicitor has to act on an economy of scale to provide you with a service for £x per hour.

If a solicitor''s annual billing target is £150k, you could be their only client as long as you paid this amount. If there were two clients, they would pay £75k each, 4 client £37.5k each and so on.

The more clients a solicitor has, the busier they become and the more delays occur. There is a saturation point where a solicitor is too busy but there is a middle ground where delays are at an acceptable level.

Charles

I know I might just be overreacting here but it has been since Friday and no word from her yet.

How long should I sit and wait until the delays overcome the acceptable threshold of reason and common sense?

Thank you all for your answers.
It is of great relief to know that someone is at least listening.

Unless there is a time limit to adhere to, expecting a response within a week is a little optimistic to be honest. Solicitors tend to dictate letters and documents which then get typed up by secretaries then checked and signed off. During holiday periods I have known of 2 week delays just in typing. Add a week to that for your solicitor to actually do the work and you have a significant delay.

However, a 2 week delay in typing is unacceptable but do expect a few days plus whatever time it takes for your work to come to the top of the pile.

Charles

This is exactly what happened before and now I am in this position.

Excellent.

Thank you, Charles, at least I know now what to expect...