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I'm wondering if anyone could help me with a few problems I currently have with my ex's solicitor. I feel that the solicitor is acting unprofessional and with one of my requests it could have caused serious problems. If none of this makes sense feel free to ask me more questions but basically I need to know where I stand on making a complaint against this solicitor for basically been unprofessional. The current court order has been in force since October 2009. A court order was previously in force which my ex decided to stop.
I am currently going through an application in court for my ex breaching a contact order. The way I see it is that she has breached the order at least 3 times, which are:
1: Arriving at least 37 minutes late for 1 contact session despite been told in court less than 14 hours previously that contact was to take place at a set time.
2: That with the court order stating "and as agreed at other times" a solicitors letter was sent in September 2009 with extra contact dates during school holidays up to December 2009 including Christmas. The solicitor claims that the letter isn't part of the court order however contact would have taken place that weekend anyway under the current court order.
3: That 2 weeks after Christmas contact didn't take place again, apparently because I had sent the police to my ex's address on Christmas Eve to do a welfare check on my daughter. The police were actually attending the address on a different matter (abusive phone call when she has been advised by the police and the courts not to contact me and the call was recorded) and after asking the police for their advice when I was contacted by them they said they would do a welfare check to set my mind at rest.
The solicitor advised my ex that she could refuse contact in January because of this (allegedly) however following the solicitors recent behaviour this was probably said. However the basis of my complaint against her are:
1: The courts ordered statements to be served by 1st October. The solicitor decided to see her client on the 2nd October when she had received my statement to discuss what I had said THEN sent her clients statement.
2: At the beginning of December I sent a proposal for contact during the school holidays. She has totally ignored this request claiming she never received it. However she replied to the email I sent with these dates on with answers to other questions I had asked.
3: In August I asked for details of my daughters doctors so that I had current up to date records. Contact had stopped for over a year and I didn't know if my daughter had changed doctors since then. I have since found out that she had changed doctors. This request was never answered despite me asking quite a few times. The last time I asked was at the beginning of January by phone and email. Again she replied to the email but with no details, not even I am trying to get the details for you. The email did ask AFTER this request some further questions for the upcoming court hearing which she answered. On 23rd Jan I ended up seeking medical attention for my daughter who had developed a rash the night before (when she wasn't with me) and as I have a newborn baby in the house I needed to know what this was, as the rash was worse than when I picked her up.
Now as I didn't have the details I had to rely on a 10 year old child to tell me her doctors details. As I live in a totally different area to where her doctors is (2 hours travelling time away) my daughter only knew sketchy details but the walk in GP centre did well to find her doctors details. My daughters problem was just an allergic reaction to something she ate.
My concern is that as my daughter problem was an allergic reaction, should my daughter's mouth swollen or something worse and she was unable to tell me these details then I would have been at a loss. This solicitor has been asked for these details must be about 15 times, every time the request has been ignored.
How do I go about making a complaint about her? I can find loads of information about if you want to complain about your own solicitor but none about if you want to complain about someone elses. During the last court hearing the solicitor tried to bring matters up that had nothing to do with the current case, and even the judge told her that.
Hi SYorksDeano,
Welcome to Dad Talk.
You seem to be clear about how you will return to court with regard to the contact order.
I really don't have a clue about how to make a complaint about a solicitor. The points you raise all relate to your child, so I will ask our legal experts to take a look at your post and see if there is any advice they can give. This will take them a couple of days to post a reply in your thread.
One thing I wonder is whether communicating by post would let you get your letters sent 'signed for' and thus you ensure they reach the solicitor and you have proof.
In the meantime, do other Dad Talk members have any insights?
One thing I wonder is whether communicating by post would let you get your letters sent 'signed for' and thus you ensure they reach the solicitor and you have proof.
The emails I have sent have always been sent with a "read receipt" and the solicitor has even replied to the emails with answers to other questions I had asked. When I spoke to the solicitor at the beginning of January I was advised to email her with the request which I did as soon as the phone was put down. She replied to that email saying contact wouldn't be taking place the day after.
Lots of other "smaller" things have happened as well. When contact was stopped before over a a year ago she was emailed asking the reasons why and I never got a reply. The solicitor claimed that the emails must have gone to her junk folder and deleted. Then when court action was taken by the ex to get contact sorted out she emailed me for my address to serve court papers despite my address already been on the court papers. I received the court papers less than 72 hours before we were due to go to court and she had received the papers from the courts over a month previously.
But the best thing is she emailed me on an email address I specifically set up just for sorting contact and court issues out so if my emails had gone to the junk folder and deleted how did she manage to email me for my address? My email address wasn't on any court papers.
Dear SYorksDeano,
We apologise for the delay in responding to your query.
In most circumstances, a person is only able to complain about a solicitor that they instruct, not someone else’s solicitor.
There is an exception to this rule if the solicitor in question has acted in such a way as to breach the professional codes of practice, which could be deemed misconduct.
In this case it does not seem as if such a breach has occurred, however you can discuss the case fully with the Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority helpline and they will be able to clarify whether there has been any breach for you, and they will also be the people to complain to if there are ground to do so. The contact number for the helpline is 0845 608 6565.
Generally we would firstly advise attempting to speak with the solicitor or the court involved regarding her conduct to try and reach a resolution, however this may not always be possible and contacting the Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority would be the only other course of action.
When complaining about someone else’s solicitor, there will be no route for compensation through a complaint, any action is taken purely in the interest of the public.
We hope that this information is useful to you, should you require any further assistance or have any questions then please contact the Child Law Advice Line 0808 8020 008 and an advisor will be happy to help.
Kind Regards
Children’s Legal Centre
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