Monies unpaid to clients in client accounts

alanlawlor

Does anyone know what is going on at the moment with solicitors paying out monies to clients "found" in accounts after long periods of time?

I have a friend who in the space of one month had two solicitors whom they had used many years in the past (years apart) for property transactions contact her to provide a check for excess money in their client account.

While the money was welcome, it seems a big coincidence that 2 solicitors, in 2 different parts of the country, in matters completely unrelated and many years apart should contact my friend to voluntarily rebate monies unpaid 3 weeks apart?

Does anyone know what is going on ? Is this under threat of financial audit from some government body ? God forbid, the Law Society ?

McCrack

It really shouldn't happen years after a transaction has finished but it does. It surfaces when closing off files and checks are done on the client account and monies are shown up and they obviously need 0 balances.

Its usually nominal amounts anyway, €100 or less.

alanlawlor

That would sound reasonable, but my understanding is that the amounts were (at least in one case) CONSIDERABLY more than €100.
There had been no contact or activity between client and solicitor in many years.

Milk & Honey

It is PI insurance renewal season. A condition of many insurers is that all accounts are brought up to date and other practise management systems are in place. In most cases when clients are due substantial sums of money they are in contact promptly. It can happen that if a client is not in contact and there is no work to be done the file is simply not reviewed for years. Sometimes money is retained in case some expense crops up.