If you find your relationship with your solicitor runs into difficulty the best course of action is to try to resolve it between yourself and the solicitor.
Try to identify the cause of the breakdown. If you kept a file on progress, meetings, documents, calls, etc. you can trace the history of your working relationship with your solicitor and use this to your advantage.
The best resolution is to work out a deal with your solicitor so the relationship can continue. Starting with a new solicitor after the process has begun has its complications: finding a replacement solicitor, breaking them in and vice versa, agreeing fees and placing your trust in a new solicitor.
If the dispute involves fees then the information given in Chapter 3 comes to the fore. If you have not nailed down an agreement on fees at an early stage and a dispute arises over them it can become a mess.
If the solicitor feels aggrieved and out of pocket and has papers or property belonging to the client in certain circumstances they can refuse to hand them over until the fees are paid.
The Law Society has procedures for complaints against solicitors; it is the regulatory body for solicitors. The Law Society can investigate complaints against its members by clients on:
Full information can be found on the Law Society’s website (www.lawsociety.ie).
The Legal Services Bill, when enacted, will deal with complaints. In its current form, Part 5 of the proposed law deals with ‘Complaints and Disciplinary Hearings in Respect of Legal Practitioners’ (see Appendix IV). When the Bill becomes law it should be consulted to see your rights.
Until the Legal Services Bill becomes law, for complaints against barristers the first action is to discuss it with your solicitor. Ideally the solicitor will raise it with the barrister and between them the matter will be sorted. However, if that fails the complaint should be directed to the secretary of the Professional Conduct Tribunal of the Bar Council of Ireland. Contact details are on its website (www.barcouncil.ie). Complaints should be made within a reasonable time.
Examples of grounds of complaint include:
Every effort should be made to resolve the subject matter of your complaint to avoid further delay, cost and stress, and only if that fails should you take your complaint to the relevant professional body.
At the time of writing, the Legal Services Bill is making its way through the Oireachtas and amendments will be made before it becomes law so until that happens there is some uncertainty as to what provisions will go and what will remain. In its current form there is provision to radically change the procedure as to how complaints against members of the legal profession will be handled. See Appendix IV for the current proposals. It is proposed that a Legal Services Regulatory Authority will be established, and this independent body will handle complaints.
Clients’ ‘Do’ List
Clients’ ‘Don’t’ List