Help with claim?

[witchymand]

Hi,
About 6 months ago I had a fire that was supposedly installed. I did get onto the company many times that installed the fire and although they agree it was wrongly installed, they have not come back with trying to alter it or solve the problem in anyway.
So after several months of complaining I took the whole thing to a solicitor who wrote off a letter to the company with 21 day notice to respond. On the 21st day the company did respond to say that they would come out and look at the fire again, they did that and still I am waiting and have heard nothing again.
Last week I emailed the solicitor to tell him that the company still haven't responded again, and his reply was not really much better, he now suggests us going to the Small claims board. This is of no use to us considering that the least we would want is our money back which is over €3,000 and the small claims board only deal with claims for much less than this.
What is wrong with this bloody country, I am so fed up. I go to a solicitor with this and now even he has lost interest, what type of business are solictors looking for. I don't know what to do now, do I go to a new solicitor?
Thanks in advance for any advice received.

 

[ClubMan]

do I go to a new solicitor?

This seems to be the only question in your post and in answer I would say that if you are not happy with the service that you are getting from your current solicitor then I would urge you to (a) make your dissatisfaction known to him/her and/or (b) shop around for another solicitor. Have you paid the solicitor anything to date for services rendered? Did you try expediting this case yourself by writing to the company directly and quoting stuff like the relevant tracts of consumer legislation, mentioning the [broken link removed]/, other consumer lobby groups/organisations, the media etc. etc.

 

[Vanilla]

In your correspondence with the company, were you requesting that they install the fire correctly or that they take away the fire and refund your money? Because if it is installation, can you get someone else to install it and then seek the money for the installation from the original company- this would be likely to be less than the small claims limit, and you could then pursue it your self. If you do not want to pursue this yourself, or if you have valid reasons for seeking your entire money back ,I can assure you that there will be plenty of solicitors out there that will appreciate your business, and WILL deal with the matter for you. In the event of a successful claim and the defendant paying up, your costs will be recovered from them. If not, you will have to pay your own costs.

 

[MOB]

"In the event of a successful claim and the defendant paying up, your costs will be recovered from them. If not, you will have to pay your own costs"

Hi Vanilla,

I don't do litigation, so correct me if I am wrong, but my recollection is that the scale costs awarded in the District court are very modest, and that solicitors for successful litigants frequently charge something over and above the costs awarded. I seem to recall that you can get the District Judge to exercise discretion and measure an appropriate figure for costs, but that the client does need to be warned in District Court matters that a "top-up" bill is a likelihood.

 

[Vanilla]

That would depend on where the claim is I suppose. In my area, as I would be likely to be in court on the day anyway, the scale costs only would be charged. Perhaps it is different if you have a solicitor who is not local to the district court in question, or in Dublin. In any event, as you would be aware, the solicitor would have an initial obligation to advise in relation to likely costs before the action commences.