Legal Ombudsman

I feel I have been ill advised by my solicitor and he has not acted in my best interests. His bad advice has now left me out of pocket and more vulnerable than ever with my ex. In April the D81 and minute of agreement was completed and monies handed over to my ex on the condition he makes the Petition, both parties agreed. my solicitor then instructed me to hand over the money. Having not heard anything since April I met with my solicitor today as he has sent me his bill. I asked him if there was a live application for the divorce as my ex is divorcing me, my solicitor replied, '''' How would I know i''m not psychic, you tell me'''' I took my sister with me as a bit of support and he declined my request for her to sit in with us. Has anyone complained to the legal ombudsman, if so would you recommend it? I could so do without this at such a difficult time in my life.

Oh dear, that is terrible but doesn''t actually surprise me that much (I know it is awful but you did make me laugh).

Be very very careful about any attempt to complain to the Legal services commission or the Solicitors Regulation Authority - pretty much it is total waste of time.

Aparently the average compensation is £250 (well was last time I attempted to complain and "lost").

Total joke when you consider just how much solicitors charge an hour and how much emotional and financial pain they can cause you for life.

I think that if you get involved in complaints it will only make your misery worse.

Sorry, I know the experience must be traumatic for you (I don''t know why your sister was not allowed to sit in with you but again doesn''t surprise me as some solicitors are as abusive and controlling as various stbx - they might even be a stbx or someones ex).

I dunno, probably not what you want to hear but I am trying to put a bit of humour into a horrible situation (having been there and done that).

I once made a very sincere complaint to an ex sol of mine and their immediate response was "You''re threatening me!" - actually I was only putting my view across and asking questions.

So this a Separation Agreement ? Was there a time limit for your husband to apply for divorce or is he perhaps waiting to divorce after two years separation with consent rather than UB?

Well, my ex asked for an amount of money,and said he wanted a divorce(he gets legal aid I don''t) i then agreed but only if he agreed to remove the matrimonial home rights notice from the land registry. I then went to my sol for advice on how to do this so I could secure my home. My sol said,'''' we need to get a D81 and Consent Order completed, when he has signed it - I will advise you when to pay the money to him.'''' The docs were signed and my sol instructed me to pay the money. This was in april and since then I have heard nothing. I only discovered by talking to a sol from this sight last week that the money should not have been handed over until the consent order was signed by the judge. hence my visit to see my solicitor today. I''m so frustrated that I have parted with this money and yet it has not protected me in any way.

I''m happy in all of this I can still make someone smile. ( god knows I wish I could)
I hate injustice, i do everything by the book, i put my trust in this sol, who has let me down badly and when I asked a simple question, he retorted in a rude and arrogant manner. I do not have the energy to fight both my ex and the sol - just wish someone would give me a break here.
PS. i''m not offended that I made you laugh and thanks for your input.

The first thing is to check your solicitor''s letter of engagement. Then you must make a formal written complaint to the person designated to deal with complaints in your solicitor''s firm. Firms sometimes pay compensation before the case gets to the ombudsman. If you aren''t satisfied with the outcome you can phone the ombudsman office for advice and the form is available to download here;

www.legalombudsman.org.uk

I think Fiona is quite right and maybe my post was too flipant (wasn''t having a very good day yesterday).

My experience has been that if a solicitor is being unreasonable that attempting to get a resolution and discuss it isn''t often helpful.

However, I have had quite a few disputes, one putting in an appeal without meeting me - I disagreed (did get heated on the phone) as a result I dismssed the solicitor but did not get charged by them for the application or the consultation he had with a barrister without me at his office.

I have also bee in dispute with my last family lawyer about £7,000 which they believe is due and I have stuck out and explained I believe i was badly represented (and had already paid up front £20,000) so I haven''t paid that dispite many letters from them saying they were taking me to court (they also kept all my files making it very difficult for me to continue with my case - well I am still here).

I did have success a while back having consulted a trust solicitor about documents. He wanted to charge me £1,800 for a one hour consultation and a 3 page letter. I stated I believed that was unreasonable as it did not stack up in terms of hours.

I offered £800 and they accepted that and I paid the bill.

As Fiona says the right way round is to write to the soliciotors complaint partner first.

Do not be surprised however if you get no response.

I wrote to one specific complaints partner of a legal firm asking them to be careful as they were putting my life and my mothers life at risk and what they wrote back and said to me was that I had written death threats to two of their clients (this was obviously a solicitor who was not representing me) and then they put their malicious allegation against me to court during some very long proceedings that I am being dragged through.

Good luck with it, I definitely know how you feel.