Is there a way to gain access to a document from an old court case

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frankde

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Hi
A parent of mine died about 40 years ago in a car accident. There was a cash award to myself and my siblings. When I turned age 21, I visited the solicitor, asked about this money, he seemed anoyed that I had asked about this. He gave me a cheque, for a small amount of money, as well as cheques to give my siblings. There was no documentation provided to me detailing the original amount of money awarded by the court. I approached the same solicitor this year, and asked for this documentation. He was not very helpful, he mentioned the documentation detailing the court case was damaged due to age (Seems this document is stored at some remote facility), and was not able to provide any more information.Seems he is hiding something... I am wondering is there some way I can get direct access to this document? Is there some government/legal agency that can help with this? Or I need to use another solicitor to gain access to this document?
 
A solicitor's letter would seem like the best option. But having said that I sent a registered letter to a solicitor about 2 years ago now to force them to reply and I got a satisfactory answer which confirmed something very important. (Inheritence issue - and asset now sold and one of these fine days will be getting a cheque for maybe a couple of grand).
 
That is a very long time to expect anyone to keep records.

The OP must be over forty at this stage, he may have received money in about 1998 (?)and he is now querying it?

He'd have had a much better chance querying it back then!

If there was a case, it would have been taken by an adult on behalf of the under age children. Can that person help in any way? OP should google newspaper archives and see if they can find any mention of a court case in the years following the parent's death.

OP could also try their local Circuit Court office and see how long records are held and archived.

mf
 
Speculating here as I don't know the full background.

I would wish to ask if the agreement was simply negotiated between the motorist's insurers and your solicitor or was it ruled on by a judge in court. If the settlement was ruled that simply means that the matter was put before a judge in court and formally approved.

If the matter was ruled on by a judge there should be a copy or a note of the relevant court order(s) in the courts own records.
I do not know how long they retain their records or if they archive them.

If this was a High Court case I would contact the Central Office seeking a copy of the relevant order(s) made.
If this was a Circuit Court case I would do likewise with the relevant office.
Here is a link to the Courts Service contact details [broken link removed]

The purpose of getting a copy of the relevant order is to see what was agreed thus allowing you to compare that with what happened. There is usually a fee for extracting a copy of the order. The courts office will advise you on that.

BTW fatal injury settlements are supposed to be ruled in court. However, this case seems to go back to an era when this practice was not always followed !
 
Last edited:
Hi All,
Thanks! for the replies

"was it ruled on by a judge in court"

I think it was ruled by a Judge, Thanks! for the link
 
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