Solicitor witholding documents

lambayi

all documents in the possession of a solicitor relating to my deceased husband have been requested from his solicitor by me, however not all documents were given to me. I have knowledge of some documents which were not returned however, i believe there are other documents about which i have no knowledge which have not been given to me. The solicitor is now acting for another party in a proposed transaction with me, so i do not want to make the solicitor aware that i do not know what documents are held, and i do not want to annoy him either. What if any are my options? thanks

Maximilian

Impossible to say from what you have said. There may be perfectly valid reasons for withholding certain documents. In any event, please note that this is not a forum for free legal advice. Read the charter stickied at the top of the forum.

Having said that, provided all the solicitor's fees are paid, a client is entitled to their file. Otherwise the solicitor has a lien on it. If the client is dead, then that right falls I imagine to the deceased person's personal representative (executor).

If you believe the solicitor is wrongly witholding documents then you can either consult another solicitor and take it from there or make a complaint to the Law Society. you can get information about the latter route here.

Miaireland

It might be worthwhile either you or your Solicitor writing to the Solicitor stating that you are aware of documents that exist that are not in the file that you have received and could they please forward them to you as a matter of urgency.

You don't have to say what documents you are missing.