Litigation. Solicitor not reporting. Suggestions?

rex-x

Hi,
Bit of a long winded story but I'll try shorten it to main points. Big high court case for over 1 million with multiple clients involved. Solicitor and barrister employed and paid and ongoing maybe 7 years at this stage.
Issue is the Solicitor. He does not reply to any emails or phonecalls or registered letters. He is not doing the job at hand and everything is delayed by his actions (barrister, court and defendants). He meets once per year to give an update and has been threatened with the door the last few times if he doesn't get his act together, nothing changed.
The issue is the barrister won't deal directly and no other Solicitor wants to touch the case as it's already in motion. Any advice on how to proceed? He has probably cost us 3-4 years of delays

rex-x

I'm looking for advice in general as to ideas how to approach it, not legal advice

nuac

Mod
Leaving open for general discussion subject to rule on legal advice

Fann Linn

Have you made contact with the Law Society?

nuac

Mod
Title changed from "Advice on how to proceed" for greater clarity

rex-x

Fann Linn wrote: »

Have you made contact with the Law Society?

Not yet, what powers do they have in relation to an issue like this?

randomrb

rex-x wrote: »

Not yet, what powers do they have in relation to an issue like this?

If you have a complaint they will follow up on it and ask the solicitor to explain the delays. Most solicitors will respond very quickly as the law society has many different powers to resolve these issues and discipline non compliant solicitors.

All you need to do is set out the facts of the situation in a letter to the law society along with any evidence to back this up, correspondence etc

Peregrinus

You talk about "multiple clients". Is this guy your solicitor, or is he the solicitor for a whole bunch of people, of whom you are just one? Who actually gives him his instructions?

BattleCorp

You might be unfairly blaming the solicitor for delaying the High Court case by 3 - years. High Court cases can be extremely complex and slow.

That said, it wouldn't hurt the solicitor to give you an update every now and again. Have you tried meeting the solicitor face to face more regularly than once a year?

rex-x

Peregrinus wrote: »

You talk about "multiple clients". Is this guy your solicitor, or is he the solicitor for a whole bunch of people, of whom you are just one? Who actually gives him his instructions?

He is the solictor for a bunch of people. Collectively as a group we meet and decide his instructions.

I understand what people are saying about high court cases being slow but each time it goes to court it is adjourned because he has not actually done what needs doing or requested documents etc etc. He sends a letter of update to each client maybe every 6 months with the same things over and over, no progress as discussed in the yearly meeting.
We have tried more meetings but he simple ignores all requests. Complaining via his receptionist gets nowhere and he is ALWAYS without fail out of office and unable to take a call. It has to do with an investment so its maybe not super serious but something everyone just wants over and done with.

Peregrinus

Clearly at a minimum there needs to be better communication between him and his clients. Your perception that the delays and adjournments are due to his inaction may or may not be correct, but if they are not his fault then at the very least he needs to be managing your expectations better than he is.