solicitor overpayment

dubgirl

alrighty then :rolleyes:

say if someone received an overpayment from a solicitor and it was the solicitors mistake can he in theory demand the money back in one lump sum?
Could an arrangement be made?

thanks

padser

dubgirl wrote:

say if someone received an overpayment from a solicitor and it was the solicitors mistake can he in theory demand the money back in one lump sum?
Could an arrangement be made?

It depends on the situation. Basically if you have money that is not yours you must pay it back.

If its a substantial amount (and this will vary from person to person) arrangements may be made to pay it back over time, however if one had four months to come up with €2000, that had been 'invested' I would suspect that no court will look too kindly on the person trying to avoid paying it.


There are situations where you would be allowed to keep the money, if it would cause undue hardship to give it back. However I couldnt see a situation like this happening if the money has been invested, unless of course the investment has gone wrong and the money has been lost.

I would get a solicitor in this situation, as it very much will depend on the facts of the individual case

mountainyman

The solicitor can demand the money however he chooses.
Nevertheless you are entitled to offer an arrangement.
In the case mentioned a court might well react favourably to an offer of euro 185 followed by 11 monthy payments of eoro 165.

MM

haz

mountainyman wrote:

The solicitor can demand the money however he chooses.

He can demand it any way he chooses, but it would benefit him to be reasonable. To take two extremes: 1) the solicitor disburses some funds and incorrectly overpays one recipient, does nothing for a year and then out of the blue demands payment in 14 days and 2) same mistake, recipient realises it or is advised but does nothing, after a year of cajoling the solicitor loses patience and issues a 14 day notice of intent to issue proceedings. The first is unreasonable and the second is not.

Obviously the money belongs to someone other than the recipient, so it should be repaid. If it is a trivial amount then one or other might pay up and forget it. If it is a large amount then the solicitor would be sensible to ensure that the demand does not cause unreasonable hardship, such as the payment plan proposed, but is entitled to pursue it - "invested" means that the resources exist for a succesful pursuit.

2,000 euro is peanuts if the matter went to court, maybe between a half and a tenth of having a judge decide how the recipient were to return the money - and the recipient would probably end up settling all costs. If the recipient has proposed a reasonable repayment schedule and the action is only to accelerate it, then the solicitor might share costs.

dubgirl

Thanks for all the advice folks