Not Happy With My Divorce Solicitor, What can I Do?

Can I change my divorce solicitors?

Choosing to start divorce proceedings is a big, and often painful decision. It’s important that the stress that comes with divorce is not made greater by working with a solicitor who simply cannot meet up your needs and expectations. Throughout a divorce case, it’s important to have a divorce lawyer who you feel you can trust and rely on to give you correct legal advice.

As divorce and family law experts, this firm takes over many cases from other solicitors. Often, the main reason for complaint is that the client feels the solicitor did not understand what was happening in the case, or that the solicitor concerned was not contactable on many occasions. This can lead to unnecessary stress and frustration.

Your right to switch

It is important to note that it is always possible to appoint a new solicitor to take over your divorce proceedings. When considering changing your divorce solicitor, it’s important to remember that you have the right to choose who represents you. The impact on your case though must be considered as what is the appropriate time to change.

Reasons to change divorce solicitor

Family law is a highly specialised field – becoming ever more complex, day by day with many conflicting precedents. It is therefore important that if you have a more complicated divorce case that you need a solicitor who is up to the task and fully up to date with the current laws.

Complicated divorces include those that involve many dependent children with difficulties, sizeable or complex financial assets, involving multiple companies and investments, an aspect of international or conflict law or where there has been a pre-existing prenuptial agreement that one or both parties are now disputing either in part or in whole.

Any divorce solicitor who is not suitably equipped to work on such cases will bring about a lack of confidence and trust on the part of their client especially if they are giving conflicting or uncertain advice. If you’re not receiving regular updates, your phone calls or emails aren’t being returned in a timely manner, or you’re simply not happy with the way things are progressing, it might be time to consider a change.

Many clients that transfer to this firm say that there has been confusion in the advice being given, or that their divorce case has not been given the attention to detail that they feel that it deserved. This of course must be distinguished between someone who is a needy client and wants to speak to a solicitor all the time and one where they have genuine concerns that are not being met.

not happy with my divorce solicitor

Some solicitors have created a reputation that they simply do not return phone calls and will instead send endless emails that the clients cannot understand. Many of the clients whose cases we take over feel that they are not being listened to or heard in any way, or that the important facts that they are giving to their solicitors have been overlooked. This in itself can lead to huge frustration.

People who are already under stress and pressure because they are going through a difficult divorce need a steady and constant flow of information about how their case is progressing. Failure to communicate properly on the part of the solicitor only leads to greater frustration. Often with the cases that we take over this has been the main reason for change.

It is very important to understand that a solicitor with the right experience and expertise will continuously communicate with their client. The main reason to switch divorce solicitors comes down to trust and confidence. If a client loses trust in their solicitors, then must consider seeking alternative representation.

When is the right time to switch?

Many clients complain to us when they change over to this firm from others, that they feel that the entire process was a lot less efficient than they would have reasonably expected. Whilst some clients accept the process does take time, there are many who will become very frustrated at the lack of progress or the lack of understanding what should be happening in their case and whether it in fact is.

So, should someone who is not satisfied with their divorce solicitor make an immediate change? What we would recommend is not to rush into changing but to firstly give your solicitor an opportunity to deal with anything that you feel unhappy about. If you are not happy at the explanation given, or the progress, or the way in which things are unfolding, then you should follow your gut feeling and change solicitors to a firm that you know can give expert advice.

 

If a client is not satisfied with the advice that they are receiving, we would recommend that they seek advice from us first before switching. No documentation needs to be signed over to the new solicitor at this point. In order to advise on the case so far, we would need sufficient copies to offer an opinion as to whether it is going in the right direction.

Of course, without seeing proper disclosure of the assets, it would be foolish of another solicitor to give a second opinion. It may be the case that you can collect as much information as necessary for us to give advice on how we think the case is going, but if you cannot, you will have to change solicitors.

It is often the case that we advise to remain with the solicitor who they currently are instructing since the advice appears to be on the right road and correct. In cases where there are little assets it would be foolish to expend a lot of fees in changing solicitors if the advice that they have already received is correct and balanced.

Generally, if we feel they have received the best advice that they should expect, and as a result no switching will be required, the client may have a renewed sense of optimism that their divorce is proceeding in the right direction, and at the correct pace.

There are other situations where we would not recommend that it is inadvisable to change divorce solicitors. It may be that the case is too near a hearing for directions and that we would advise that once those directions have been completed, that the change can take place.
If final orders have been made, then realistically there would be little point in changing solicitors at that stage.

It might be extremely unhelpful since we cannot give a sense that there is something that can radically change if it cannot. However, we can advise whether the advice given that led to a settlement at a final hearing or led to the way in which a final hearing was fought, has been entirely negligent.

In which case the new solicitor, at this firm or another, would look at what can be done about it. In many cases if there has been a final order and nothing can be done to change the final order itself, and there has been negligence, the client will be referred to specialist solicitors. They will take proceedings for the negligence concerned with our firm having supplied the evidence of the negligent advice.

Appointing a new divorce solicitor

Appointing a new divorce solicitor is a straightforward process. First, the client will need to pay the old solicitor for all of the work that has been carried out and all of the bills outstanding to them. In the absence of being paid for their work, solicitors can exercise what is known as a ‘lien’ over the old papers and it is vital that any new solicitor has all of the papers in order to properly advise. Sometimes it will be possible to negotiate the outstanding fees in order to quickly receive the papers.

The simplest way of moving forward would be for the client to sign a document with the new solicitors, authorising the release of their files to the new divorce solicitor. If there is any obstruction to the handing over of the files when the bill has been paid the Law Society guidance is quite clear, that if you have paid for the services the file now belongs to the client and therefore they can insist that the file is handed over.

If there are any difficulties in this regard, your new solicitor must contact the old one, together with the authority from you, and ensure that they understand why there has been any delay. A consistent delay in handing over the file is something that can be reported to the SRA.

It is important that, in addition to receiving the documentation and correspondence passing between solicitors, that the file also contains all the attendance notes of any conversations between solicitors or any attendances at Court, or any advice given by the barrister. In order to give full, proper and informed advice to a client who is changing solicitors we must have access to the entire file to proceed.

When to contact our Divorce Lawyers in London

If you feel that things are not well in your case, you should always give the current solicitor an opportunity to put them right. If their inexperience is shining through, then you must change solicitors to ensure that your case receives the best advice and direction. If you have no idea what is going on currently in your case, the chances are that there is no strategy and things have not been made clear to you.

If it is time to change your divorce lawyer, it’s important to choose someone who has experience in the area of family law and who you feel you can trust. At Lloyd Platt & Company, as experienced family law solicitors we take over a substantive number of cases from other firms and often the first thing that we notice is how badly that the files have been kept or put together.

If there has been a file that is in total confusion, the chances are that the advice has been haphazard too. This is not always the case, but a badly put together file is an indication that all is not right. Our forte at Lloyd Platt & Company is to troubleshoot in these kinds of cases and develop a strategy where none has previously been available.

Quite often, in taking over these kinds of cases, we can see that the solicitors have been reactive rather than proactive in taking the case forward and there may have simply been endless correspondence without any action to move the case on. We will ensure that your case progresses smoothly in a timely manner going forward, and work with you to achieve the outcome you desire.

You must also understand that in changing solicitors it will be necessary for new solicitors to read through the old file. This will take a few hours at least and you must be prepared to pay that in order to receive a proper and sensible opinion and moreover a strategy for your case going forward.

Our expert divorce solicitors in our family law team are here to help guide you through your divorce and all the elements that go with that, including childcare arrangements and financial settlements. We will also advise whether your case is appropriate for mediation, where you can receive guidance from our trained mediators and a collaborative lawyer.

If you are wondering, Can I change my divorce solicitors? Our family lawyers are here to help. Get in touch today. To make an enquiry please fill in our form, call us on 0208 343 2998 or click to contact our divorce lawyers.

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