It's an all-too-common scenario: there are only a couple of weeks or even days to go before the final hearing and one of the parties is not happy with the way the case is going, so they decide they need representation, or to change solicitor. They then come to you, expecting you to miraculously turn things around. The fact of the matter, of course, is that you've barely got time to arrange for them to be represented at all, let alone properly prepare the case. Please, if you're going to instruct/change solicitors, don't leave it to the last minute.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Don't leave it to the last minute
It's an all-too-common scenario: there are only a couple of weeks or even days to go before the final hearing and one of the parties is not happy with the way the case is going, so they decide they need representation, or to change solicitor. They then come to you, expecting you to miraculously turn things around. The fact of the matter, of course, is that you've barely got time to arrange for them to be represented at all, let alone properly prepare the case. Please, if you're going to instruct/change solicitors, don't leave it to the last minute.
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Oh Yes.
ReplyDeleteJohn, you can't know how heartfelt my agreement is. The endless calls - 'I've got a possession hearing/ repossession hearing/ eviction/ permission to appeal hearing in two days/ tomorrow/ yesterday and I want representation'. How long have they had to arrange this? Weeks, at a minimum. Some things, like an illegal eviction or other injunction issues are, by the nature of the beast, urgent affairs. But for the rest, it is usually clear that they haven't even tried to find a solicitor until the last moment. As I unfortunately had to explain to an unfortunate today, we are indeed very good at what we do, but, sadly, we lack magical powers.
Sorry, I'll be better soon - I've just been through a wave of the desperate that we couldn't do anything about, and it does get to one.
I'm sure neither John nor Nearly Legal are guilty of this but I have to whine about the equivalent irritant for the bar: the solicitor who has been acting for a client throughout a case but yet instructs the poor barrister only at the last minute prior to a hearing (inevitably without providing the materials required to do the best possible job for the client).
ReplyDelete'Counsel will use her best endeavours to represent the client...'
Indeed she will, but we too are only human.
Perish the thought ;-), although a regular source of irritation is when the solicitors on the other side leave it to the last minute to file essential documentation, despite their client having been ordered to file it weeks earlier.
ReplyDelete(cough)(blush)Sorry Familoo, I will admit to very occasionally instructing at the last minute, but only where we ourselves are instructed shortly before. Counsel would get every document we had in that instance. After one nightmare experience, I don't fall into the 'we're about to settle, so I'll hold off instructing counsel' trap any more. Papers can all too often be late though but it isn't our fault, honest. Providing disclosure, witness statements etc. at the very last moment being a speciality of local authorities, I find.
ReplyDeleteoooh i didn't mean to make you blush! shame on me... ;-)
ReplyDelete(I might be inclined to comment on your views about the immunity of local authorities to deadlines, but whilst they can't blush because they aren't individuals they can refuse to instruct me ever again so I guess I'll stay quiet)