Dear Mr Smith,
As I referred to my earlier emails my complaint to your firm consists of 3 aspects;
1) Your behaviour
2) Your excessive and exorbitant billing
3) Your negligence
The negligence aspect will be dealt with separately as the Ombudsman has no scope to investigate this.
There are over 42 separate negligent points which will be detailed to you under the pre-action protocol
My initial involvement with your firm was following my ____________________________ contacting you asking for you to get involved in the case after ______________________________________.
______________________________________.
A fixed fee was also in place for you and the barrister to attend the NCC in late February 2013 for the first hearing where you took over the case
We then had a subsequent meeting at HMP Nottingham in which you brought your assistant Ms H Ronson to take notes
You were fully aware of my confused, shell-shocked and vulnerable status as a professional being in prison for the first time, worried over my family and young child and that I was suffering from severe depression
You asked me to sign hurriedly one piece of paper A4 paper which I thought was an authority to take over the case when in fact it turns out was some sort of agreement which was not explained to me or given to me to look at before you asked me to sign
I was not aware nor did you explain your billing worked, how you would bill and that you saw me a ‘cash cow’
I was not made aware that I would be entitled to legal aid
I was not made aware that your firm’s private fees could not be recovered if I lost
I asked you on many occasions for a breakdown of your bill justifying the time spent and what you were actually working on. Payments to be made from your firm were asked for either by text from your assistant or via email to my family.
I asked you to provide a cost estimate and a fixed fee for the services after all the evidence was received from Nottingham CPS in April 2013. You said you would provide this yet failed to do so
This was a very simple case yet you have shockingly managed to invoice over £130,000, which is not even what a murder case would cost to defend
You never sent me any original invoices to HMP Nottingham.
After much prompting you sent me copies of your invoices and I now note that you put HMP Nottingham on them but they were never sent to me
Of serious concern to me are the following which I would like a comprehensive answer to:-
You travelled first class to see me in Nottingham which was never agreed
You charged for parking yet travelled by train. You have failed to justify this
You billed for travelling time which was never agreed
You have billed for Ms H Ronson, your assistant, despite it being made clear to me that she was there to assist you. You confirmed that you would not be invoicing for her time
You billed for hours between 9am-11am yet always arrived late between 9.15 and 9.30am or on the one occasion you came in the afternoon it was again late by 20mins.
I understand HMP Nottingham visitor logs confirm this.
You asked for weekly meetings stating that ‘the prison video conference system’ and postal mail could be listened into with mail intercepted and relayed back to the police.
You also refused to allow my ____________, who was a barrister with substantial criminal experience to liaise with you.
In hindsight this was clearly to avoid scrutiny and allow you to instil fear and paranoia in order to justify weekly meetings.
The previous solicitors had no issue with ____________ being on my legal team.
____________ could have visited me 3 times a week resulting in a substantial reduction in your exorbitant fees.
It was clear in our meetings you had done no preparation and were doing so ‘on the hoof’ whilst travelling on the train.
When we did have meetings I continually had to correct your mistakes, dates, timings and events and spent a large amount of time refreshing you over various points as opposed to discussing the overall tactics of the case, especially since all this information had been provided to you in great detail in February 2013
My family and I did the majority of the work, with you overseeing and deciding which matters you felt were relevant. When questioned about your billing or your decisions you have told my wife on more than just a few occasions to ‘shut up’.
I was in an extremely vulnerable position in which my mental health was suffering which was clear to you when you instructed a Psychiatrist to visit me and produce a report in March 2013
Once the Psychiatrist had provided his report you failed to get material facts changed and failed to use it. This was a substantial and unnecessary loss for me to bear and an example of your cavalier, lazy and sloppy approach to my case
It reached a stage where I had such little confidence that a conference had to be organised with my family in order to highlight the serious deficiencies in your work. I note that have billed for this as well
You instructed a QC to attend a preliminary hearing without my knowledge and prior consent which was unnecessary and again resulted in exorbitant charges
The agreement with the barrister appointed at trial was for as many conferences as I wanted. You stonewalled this saying it was unnecessary as you were preparing the case. This was a serious mistake following your advice
It now transpires that the barrister was not involved in the decision making of the defence
You failed to give a written opinion on the case considering all matters with you stating that this could not be done because the prison could read postal mail and feedback to police
You failed to give an updated written costs estimate at any stage despite being requested to do so many times
You have billed for assistant to attend trial for the barrister to take notes. The daily fee is staggering considering that the person was a note taker and not agreed
You bullied and threatened my wife with withdrawing from the case days prior to trail unless £40,000 paid immediately.
You were in addition rude, aggressive, condescending to my wife and family. I was not aware of your behaviour and this threat made by you.
Had I known I would have terminated your services immediately.
My family have confirmed that they felt helpless and could not say anything as the trial was only days away. They did not want to jeopardise my prospects
You never sent any costs or bills to me instead text or call my wife demanding random payments always in a pressurising manner, always with some looming deadline without ever a full and full and complete breakdown of the cost.
I made only 1 call to you in 9 months yet you have billed for various calls and not detailed what they are. These call are clearly not agreed
I did not send you any emails yet you have billed for a copious amount of emails. Again you have failed to detail these emails. This is clearly not agreed
You have failed to provide crucial documents that I asked for prior to trial
You have not highlighted what you have billed for or given a detailed itemised bill
You have billed for ‘prison work’ yet nothing was done or followed up and was a complete waste of time
Summary
It is clear that the only interest you had in my case, was to extract as much money from me and it is clear from the emails that I have seen you saw me as a ‘cash cow’
In return for receiving circa £130,000 you provided a shoddy, lazy and incompetence service in which my defence consisted of 6 lines.
You are an expert at promising but inept in delivering.
You have displayed a loose and cavalier approach to invoicing which simply does not add up, particularly in terms of hours you have spent on this matter, emails and telephone calls dealt with
You took advantage of my severe depression and reduced mental capacity as well my family’s vulnerability which was compounded by ______________ being diagnosed with ______________ cancer in July 2013, 8 weeks before trial.
At no stage did you explain your fees, legal aid provisions, provide a written opinion and cost estimate.
You failed to keep me updated on your costs or provide a detailed bill justifying every itemised expense
You shockingly abused by position by travelling first class, insisting on face to face visits rather than advise on alternatives
You avoided my request to get a fixed cost for this matter once all the paperwork had been received in April 2013 in this simple case.
You bullied, insulted and threatened my family as well as misleading me on a number of matters as detailed
You have failed to provide me with details over how to complain
I wish to receive a substantial discount and refund from your bills which accurately reflects the actual time and work you have spent on this matter which I believe is a less than a day as well as your conduct and distress that this matter has caused me
Yours sincerely,
_____________