Cheque lodgement

[Winalot]

Solicitor lodged cheque made payable to client without client's knowledge and without client's authority to lodge the cheque. Cheque was crossed "account payee only" . Only discovered this a year later. Is the solicitor in trouble for doing this?

 

[jpd]

Lodged it where?

 

[Brendan Burgess]

1) The bank should not have accepted a cheque from the solicitor

But has anyone lost out? Did the solicitor pass on the proceeds to the client?

If the solicitor did this and held onto the funds, then you should seek a return of the funds and make a complaint to the Legal Service Regulator Authority.

You should also ask the bank to pay you in full.

But if the solicitor passed on the money to you, then no one has lost out as a result of this.

Brendan

 

[T McGibney]

But if the solicitor passed on the money to you, then no one has lost out as a result of this.

+1
Ditto if the solicitor properly recorded in their client's account, their receipt of the sum as a credit and issued a statement of account in the meantime.

 

[Winalot]

Cheque was lodged in the solicitors account. Client was paid a portion before a bill of costs was provided. Bill of costs not detailed properly. Is what the solicitor did illegal?

 

[mathepac]

What the bank did is wrong, unless they were presented with some form of "power of attorney" proof by the solicitor and even then the payee(s) would at the very least have to have signed the power of attorney document(s) and endorsed the cheque. Not either/or but both and even then the bank permitting lodgement of such a cheque to a 3rd party's account is dubious.

 

[elcato]

My understanding is that the bank will allow so if a money trail can be kept. This would allow them to withdraw the amount from the solicitor's account if anything became of it that would bring rise to this. However the time frame now is quite large and reversing the payments may not help the OP if the original third party has a say.

 

[Groucho]

Cheque was lodged in the solicitors account. Client was paid a portion before a bill of costs was provided. Bill of costs not detailed properly. Is what the solicitor did illegal?

Have a read of Part II of the SOLICITORS ACCOUNTS REGULATIONS 2014 (S.I. No. 516 of 2014) and see what you think.

Or ask your solicitor!

 

[mathepac]

However the time frame now is quite large and reversing the payments may not help the OP if the original third party has a say.

The 3rd party here is the solicitor. The 1st and 2nd parties in the transaction(s) are the payee identified on the cheque and party who owns and controls the account the cheque is drawn on.

The purpose of that specific crossing, "account payee only", is to prevent 3rd party participation in the transaction