In these consumer-driven times it is increasingly common for dissatisfied clients to change solicitors – especially in personal injury claims.
We often take over cases for people who are unhappy with the lawyers they first instructed, often when they were recommended to them by their own house or motor insurers.
The reasons given by such clients include lack of communication, general delays, having to speak to a different person every time you call, poorly-written emails, inaccurate medical reports and generally being unhappy with the advice given.
Every client has the right to change solicitors, but, in injury claim cases there may be a financial downside, depending how the case is funded.
If your case is paid for by legal expenses insurance – normally purchased with house contents or motor insurance – most insurers will allow you to instruct a new solicitor (subject to their terms and conditions) without it costing you a penny and will always agree if court proceedings have started.
Panel Solicitors
A few insurers will not indemnify you in respect of legal fees if you transfer solicitors who are not on their panel before court proceedings start. Your insurance will always cover the work your old solicitor has done, but not any other work before the issue of Court proceedings. However, your preferred, new solicitor may be able to persuade the insurers to continue to support you or enter into a new funding agreement with you so that you still don’t pay any legal fees after the file is transferred.
The situation is more complicated if you have entered into a conditional fee agreement with your current solicitors. Your solicitor may either send you a bill, which you must pay before the file is transferred, or, if they still think your case is likely to win, they can elect not to send a bill and collect their success fee if and when you win compensation. In our experience, most firms choose the latter option, leaving the client with no financial worries after changing to a new firm.
If the previous solicitors advised that your claim is unlikely to succeed, then they will normally have no objection to the file going to your new solicitors and will enter into an agreement with them about their costs if the claim succeeds, again leaving the client with nothing to worry about.
Trade Unions
If your case is funded by a trade union, there is nothing to stop you transferring to a new firm, but you will normally not be able to take the cover provided by the union with you and will have to enter into an agreement (usually a Conditional Fee Agreement whereby you only pay a success fee to your solicitor if the case is successful and nothing if you lose) with the new firm..
These are general guidelines and only apply to personal injury cases, although as motor and household insurers constantly try to divert potential clients to firms of solicitors in Cardiff, Liverpool, Leeds and elsewhere, we find that more and more people from Sheffield are looking to instruct solicitors of their own choice who are closer to home.
Our advice to anyone dissatisfied is to firstly contact the firm they would prefer to instruct and discuss it with them. Such meetings are normally free of charge and often lead to the file being transferred quickly and a better outcome than if the client had stayed with the original solicitors.