complain about ex's solicitor.?

Hi peeps,

Haven;t been on for a while and I'm quite frustrated at how things can drag on even after you're divorced!!

My fiance was given an endowment policy as settlement in his divorce, the court order stated that the policy be handed over within 42 days of the date of the court order, which was 3rd march 2009.

His ex's solicitor has been very elusive to get hold of and correspondance from them has been very difficult.
After threatening faxes and telephone calls his ex finally made an appointment to sign the policy over, this was three weeks ago.
Still no policy.

His ex wife let the policy lapse and didn't pay any monies into it for 12 months, that has now become 15 months, so the longer her solicitor holds on to it the more money needs to be paid to it to bring it up to date so my fiance can cash it in.

My fiance's solicitor has advised him that he can refer the matter back to court (expense again) or just sit and wait for his ex's solicitor to forward the policy on.
In my opinion this is very unprofessional and costing my fiance needless expense. By the time he gets the policy and pays his solicitors fees he'll have nowt left!

Surely there must be somewhere to complain about this as I think it's misconduct for this solicitor to hold on to a policy that equals to money for my fiance.
This is the only part of his divorce that has not been settled , surely it's not that difficult to put a bloody policy in an envelope and post it!!!

Is there anyone here that can advise please???
thank you.

Hi Angie,

I had a similar problem whereby after several attempts at writing to sols to have a policy released, I sent a complaint to the regulators and copied same to sol i question. Policy arrived within the week!

The following link may be useful

www.wikivorce.com/divorce/Solicitors/Com...-your-solicitor.html

Elle x

thank you elle...you're a star will let you know what happens
angie x

Complaining about someone else's solicitor is a bit different, you need evidence of professional misconduct such as lying or taking advantage of you. Certainly withholding monies or policies might fall into that category but I would talk it over with your own lawyer. When someone complains of misconduct the Legal Complaints Service hands the case to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The SRA doesn't pay compensation.

Thanks Fiona for this info,
I have read up about third party complaint and have emailed the LCS explaining the situation regarding the policy and how it has gone way past the date of the order of the court and that the solicitor in question has been very elusive in not answering faxes and emails, letters.

The LCS have replied and have told me to give the name and address of the said solicitor and they would forward this information on to the SRA.

What could possibly be an excuse for the lengthy and needless delay is what I don't understand and for a solicitor to not respond in matters such as this I think it is totally unprofessional especially as the policy is accruing debt being withheld.

My fiance's solicitor emailed yesterday and said that she cannot complain to his ex's solicitor and that the mentioned solicitor he wishes to complain about is a senior partner in the said firm.
Also, that she has written and given a dead-line to respond and forward the policy on, which is this Friday after that she has threatened court action with his ex and the solicitor paying the costs and then added that this is a difficult thing to do.
If that's the case why take it court why threaten it when she knows this and he knows it too plus the fact my fiance CANNOT afford such action.
That's why I thought there must be some "body" somewhere to complain to to get this solicitor to surrender the policy.

I think it's a disgrace to keep people waiting for something like this and there not be a way to complain about it because there's some little clause somewhere that excuses the behaviour of the person in question.
When it comes to dated court orders on the public they have to be obeyed within that time frame but legal professions can abuse that like this solicitor has, the date on the court order doesn't mean that much to him or else he would have forwarded it on by now ,bt had my fiance not obeyed the date on the order to pay SM & CM he would probably be in jail now!


ok my rant is over...thanks for reading it....lol it's just soooo frustrating when a simple thing takes months to complete.
Angie
-x-

So should he wait to email back the LCS and see what happens on Friday ?

Hi All...
I am pretty dam hacked off now!!!
My partner did threaten with the SRA and within a week the policy was signed and on his solicitors desk ready to be posted back to the insurance company BUT!! His solicitor realised an error in the policy number so she had to write up a new deed of assignment to send back to his ex's solicitor to be signed, but his ex wont sign it until she knows what the surrender value is! She didnt want to know this with the first deed she signed so why does she want to know now? Her solicitor said it needs to be "identified and resolved" yet he knew how much it was worth on surrender at the final hearing because he told the judge and thats why my partner accepted it!
So what needs to be resolved? I thought that it got resolved at the final hearing when the judge ordered he got the policy and she got the flaming house!
I just think this is blatant stalling and a definite breach of the order from the court for all things to be dealt with within 42 days of the order of the court , which was 3rd march 2009. Fair enough sometimes things take a little longer but this is just taking the P***
Does anyone have any idea as to why they have requested this now when they didnt the first time around or do you agree with me and they are blatantly stalling and in breach of the court order?
They have both signed the Clean Break order but is there a trick up their sleeves to make a claim for some of that policy money ie his two children, could she make a claim against him for money for them in some way.
Any offers of wisdom and insight other than my own would be greatly welcomed.
Thank you for reading
Angie
xx

I found your post.. I cannot tell you how disgraceful i think the legal profession is words will not express my disgust nor my disbelief.. 4 years ago we agreed she could have the house it is written down in that first letter 4 years ago.. But somehow we managed to argue this point for 4 years costing us 4,000 costing her nothing as she gave up her job to get legal aid..now she has a house with no mortgage and still doesnt need to work as she is claiming income support even though she has another income unfortunatly we cannot proove this as it is family she is earning the money from.. The only way we ended this farce was to complain to her legal aid saying we had agreed to everything 4 years ago and as this was prooved she had no choice but to go ahead with the divorce.. now my partner has his absolute and we are getting married in 3 weeks.. BUT i still feel we should be making an official complaint to see if we can get some of the money we have paid out un-necessarily back.