Conduct and service

Don't compound errorsIf you want to annoy your clients, try ignoring their instructions to cease work on their matter and then bill them for the unrequested work, chase payment in a totally inappropriate way, misrepresent the position to the client and ultimately ignore their complaints.This is precisely what one firm recently dealt with by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) did - all for the sake of about 50.At the end of a divorce matter, the client instructed her solicitors, in writing, to do no more work apart from obtaining the decree absolute.

The solicitors acknowledged this, saying if further letters were received, they would tell the husband's solicitors they no longer represented her.

They then sent her a 'final account', which she paid.A month later, an additional letter arrived from the husband's solicitors.

Without seeking further instructions, the solicitors replied substantively and billed the client for dealing with it.

She objected.

A few days later, the firm sent the client her decree absolute with a letter which led her to believe she was not now being asked to pay the account.

However, two weeks later, the solicitors wrote asking for payment and she responded with a formal written complaint.

She reminded the solicitors of her instructions and the assurance they had given in response.

In reply the solicitors claimed, erroneously, and after ignoring several telephone calls from the complainant, that they had a duty to respond to the letter received.Everything then went quiet until, 18 months later, the solicitors wrote again asking for payment.

The complainant did not respond.

Six months passed before the solicitors wrote again, threatening to issue proceedings, implying that the firm was invariably successful in such matters and that an adverse judgment would affect the complainant's credit rating.In panic, but under protest, the complainant paid the bill and then lodged a complaint with the OSS.

The OSS had little sympathy for the solicitors, who had in effect accepted instructions to do no more work, rendered what they said was a final account, then done further work without authority, billed the client for it, ignored her protests, misrepresented the situation and finally threatened to sue her - all for about 50.The OSS ordered the solicitors to refund the amount of their bill and also pay 500 compensation to the client for the distress and inconvenience she had experienced.

That is not to mention the fee-earning time lost to the solicitors in having to deal with the eventual complaint to the OSS.

The moral: when a client instructs you to cease work on a matter, do so.l Every case before the compliance and supervision committee is decided on its individual facts.

These case studies are for illustration only and should not be treated as precedents.