Hi all,
Our family engaged an Estate lawyer to write up a deed of family arrangement and apply for letters of administration of my dad's estate (he died without a will, intestate).
They initially said it will take 3 months to finalise. It has now been approx. 6 months and it's still going. They have provided almost to guidance as to what's going on and given how much they charge per hour, and the small size of dad’s estate, we have been very hesitant to chase them up on it. In the meantime we had lost a buyer on dad’s house and, of course, the property market and offers have dried up since then.
They eventually told us that the graduate lawyer that was handling our case had left very abruptly and because of a lack of handover, this had caused delays.
On top of time delays, I've also been very concerned about a general lack of care. They've omitted me from emails, misspelt names on documents and today advised they haven't received documents I had sent by registered post which tracking shows arrived at their stated post office (not sure what's going on there).
I get a lot of apologies and I'm sure a lot of this is bad luck on our part but what actual recourse do we have, if any?
One thing that really angered me was that when my mother wanted to ask a few questions about some forms they asked her to sign (no explanation why - and we're hesitant to ask given his $400/hr fee). The lawyer took my mum’s queries about the document (she's worried that she's signing her life away) as her intention not to sign and stated, "I'll advise my clients you don't intend to sign" and hanged up on her.
Straight after he sent a letter to all of us stating this and proposed a conference call the next morning to discuss ‘this change of events’. The reason why I believe my mums take on events was that the lawyers had been so slow and uncommunicative to date and seemingly, when they saw an opportunity to charge us for something, they acted with great haste. Granted, this would come down to a he said she said so I don't think I can really argue anything here, but it left me quite frustrated.
A friend advised that I can take them to task for not delivering on their undertaking to finalise the matter in the three months as they stated, but I don’t know where that will get us at this stage of things. I’m also able to ask for an independent review of charges but I’m not sure if this is beneficial to us. They haven't since mentioned anything about charges.
Any guidance on how to deal with the lawyers will be greatly appreciated. I get that we’re small fry to them but this is quite unprofessional, in my view. I plan on leaving a negative google review 😉
Thanks,
Jesho.
$400/hour. That's not even expensive.
The legal system is rank.
(Sorry OP, no advice.)