Solicitors Bill/Legal Aid

Hi,

Im hoping some can offer some advice please.

In 2009 I dismissed my solicitor due to what I believed was negligence after 3 years of them trying to get me a divorce settlement. I continued with this myself however due to mistakes made at their end, the ex stopped paying the mortgage for the 3 years they represented me and the house was repossessedI received no settlement and was informed by the solicitor that my bill would be around £7800.

From the bill £400 would be my costs and the balance my ex husbands as ordered by the court. As I paid legal aid contributions my certificate was set at £2500 + VAT. The Legal Agency have £3700 sitting with them at present which is what I paid in contributions up until 2009.

I have two questions about this if anyone can help at all.

1) The solicitor is refusing to submit the final bill despite the Legal Ombudsman requesting this on 2 occasions and the Legal Aid Agency trying to get this since May this year. I have now been waiting 41 months for this. Where do I stand with this?

2) As I received no settlement should I be paying the ex''s costs?

Many thanks

1. You should persevere with your complaint to the Ombudsman.

2. Unfortunately if you have been ordered to pay, you must pay. I doubt the order is contingent upon you receiving a settlement.

I''m unclear as to the figures you state. I can understand the limitation on the legal aid certificate of £2500 + VAT but where do the £7800 and the £400 figures come from?

Charles

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the response, Ive been to the Ombudsman twice now 2012 and 2014 and they requested the solicitor issue me with a final bill on both occassions and they still haven''t done this. The last case was closed as solicitor advised they were going to do so. The last case with the Ombudsman took 9 months for them to come a conclusion that there was a delay in submitting the bill for which they awarded me £200 and the agreement was the solicitor would sort this ASAP. I am reluctant to wait another 9 months to be honest.

The Legal Aid Certificate states my costs can be no more than £2500 plus VAT, the solicitors provided me with a rough copy of costs when the Ombudsman were involved and they stated to expect a bill of around £7800 (although my certificate means I dont pay more than £2500) from which £400 were legal aid costs and the balance were all other costs. As the court ordered the ex pay all costs then I dont think its right that I have to pay anything but the £400 which they stated were the legal aid fees.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks