Bloody Solicitors (coda)
A long, long time ago, early on in my blogging, I made moan about the evil that is lawyers. Today, as the house debacle finally reaches its sorry end, I am faced with a bill from my useless solicitors.
Why useless? Well throughout the months of agony, they have been less than helpful. They have failed to return phone calls, ignored emails, been painfully slow to respond to queries and generally mucked me about. The last straw was when I phoned to tell them that I was finally conceding defeat and withdrawing my offer for the plot. I was told that my solicitor was busy with a client, but that she would call back. She never did, so I sent an email. Two days later I received a letter from one of the partners, noting my email and explaining that my solicitor was away on holiday. She would, it said, deal with my request when she returned. So, either her secretary needs firing or she does.
And they have the gall to charge me for this so-called 'service'. In their defence, they're not charging me very much - less than a lunch-break in solicitor terms. But they then go and ruin that by adding to the bill a £10 charge for 'Postage, photocopying and other petty disbursements...' (and the ellipsis is theirs, not mine). Now, they've sent me three letters. First class postage less than a pound in total. Photocopying? I've not seen any. And as for 'petty disbursements...' well I guess they all had to go down the pub one evening to discuss my case. Or maybe they paid a local feckless youth to hand-deliver my offer to the vendor's solicitors at the other end of town.
I won't name these people - they are solicitors, after all. But it confirms my generally low opinion of the legal profession. No doubt there are outstanding and dedicated lawyers out there, fighting for the little guy and making no money out of it at all. But as far as I'm concerned, they don't work in Aberystwyth.
Why useless? Well throughout the months of agony, they have been less than helpful. They have failed to return phone calls, ignored emails, been painfully slow to respond to queries and generally mucked me about. The last straw was when I phoned to tell them that I was finally conceding defeat and withdrawing my offer for the plot. I was told that my solicitor was busy with a client, but that she would call back. She never did, so I sent an email. Two days later I received a letter from one of the partners, noting my email and explaining that my solicitor was away on holiday. She would, it said, deal with my request when she returned. So, either her secretary needs firing or she does.
And they have the gall to charge me for this so-called 'service'. In their defence, they're not charging me very much - less than a lunch-break in solicitor terms. But they then go and ruin that by adding to the bill a £10 charge for 'Postage, photocopying and other petty disbursements...' (and the ellipsis is theirs, not mine). Now, they've sent me three letters. First class postage less than a pound in total. Photocopying? I've not seen any. And as for 'petty disbursements...' well I guess they all had to go down the pub one evening to discuss my case. Or maybe they paid a local feckless youth to hand-deliver my offer to the vendor's solicitors at the other end of town.
I won't name these people - they are solicitors, after all. But it confirms my generally low opinion of the legal profession. No doubt there are outstanding and dedicated lawyers out there, fighting for the little guy and making no money out of it at all. But as far as I'm concerned, they don't work in Aberystwyth.
Comments
Maybe I should have kept it for posterity.