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Legal aid and service

  • 19-03-2014 9:58pm
    #1
    loubian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,635 ✭✭✭


    Hi I was wondering could people give me some insight on this. .

    I'm in (family) court next week for access, guardianship and maintenance. I met with a (recommended) solicitor and was told I could get legal aid, wwhich I did. I have had a very hard time getting in touch with this solicitor. I understand she's very busy but there were times when I've rang the office for her to be on a call, even answer sometimes, to be told she'd ring me back in 30 minutes or so and I'd never hear back from her. She proposed we adjourn the first court date to work on access but I didn't hear from her until 5pm the night before I was due in court as to wwhether it had been adjourned or not. I have the new court date next week and I've been trying to get in touch with her since 1st march but have heard nothing.

    Is this normal? This is my first time needing a solicitor so I don't know what is the normal response time.

    Would my case be of "lower importance" because I'm using legal aid?

    She asked me to email her something so me and my baby's father can maybe agree something before the date but as mentioned above, I have not heard from her.


Comments

  • #2
    Pat Mustard
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,554 ✭✭✭Pat Mustard


    You would expect to be contacted back. In any case, this hasn't happened.

    It's not absolutely clear whether it's a Legal Aid solicitor working in a Law Centre or a private solicitor operating under a Legal Aid Private Practitioner scheme. Although it may be possible to change solicitors, I doubt that you will be able to manage this in a week. You could check.

    If you are in a position to hire a private solicitor, you could go that route.

    If not, and if you are unhappy, contact the Legal Aid Board/Law Centre.


  • #3
    loubian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,635 ✭✭✭loubian


    The Mustard wrote: »
    You would expect to be contacted back. In any case, this hasn't happened.

    It's not absolutely clear whether it's a Legal Aid solicitor working in a Law Centre or a private solicitor operating under a Legal Aid Private Practitioner scheme. Although it may be possible to change solicitors, I doubt that you will be able to manage this in a week. You could check.

    If you are in a position to hire a private solicitor, you could go that route.

    If not, and if you are unhappy, contact the Legal Aid Board/Law Centre.

    I think she's a private solicitor; she has her own firm.

    It would be really short notice to try and get a new solicitor now, but would it be possible?

    I might ring them tomorrow thanks.. I don't know why I did think of that before. I think I assumed I'd have to stick with the same solicitor as I wasn't paying her directly (even though that sounds ridiculous to me now that I say it)


  • #4
    Pat Mustard
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,554 ✭✭✭Pat Mustard


    loubian wrote: »
    It would be really short notice to try and get a new solicitor now, but would it be possible?
    If you plan to move to a private solicitor, there may be enough time, provided that you act now.

    If you plan to move to another Legal Aid solicitor or solicitor operating under the PP scheme, I would doubt that you have enough time, but check this for yourself. I don't know for certain that this can definitely be done, but check it out for yourself.


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