Hi All,
I will be engaging in a mediation process with LSRA & a solicitor and I would like your opinion on what you think would be a fair outcome for the mediation. The LSRA have agreed the complaint is admissible for 'inadequate legal services'.
Here are the details.
My Uncle in Summer 2016 died intestate leaving only four beneficiaries, my Dad (who was 80 at the time), two aunts & one first cousin (who's dead father was a brother to the deceased uncle). My Dad (who only had a primary school education .. left school in the 1940s) asked me to help him with the paperwork & the solicitor. The house was sold, debts were paid and in spring 2017 the solicitor emailed to say all the beneficiaries were to get their money, which in autumn 2017 my Dad & my two Aunts got their money. I did their IT38 returns for them. My first cousin, who was severely disabled and lives in Australia since birth did not get their money, which we only found out in 2023. The solicitor had been directly corresponding with his legal guardian in 2016 & 2017. My cousin has no children, spouse, aunts, uncles or first cousins and to be honest was not in touch with his Irish relatives since his Mum & Dad died in early 2000s. We have no connection with any of my cousins Australian relatives. Talking to an Australian second cousin, we established there was no other first cousins alive in Australia.
From autumn 2017 until autumn 2023 we had no communication from the solicitor and we though the estate was finalised. My cousin died 2020, his guardian died in 2022, the last closest relative in Australia.
In Autumn 2023 we got an email from another solicitor in the firm saying we need to send the money to Australia, we then told the solicitor my cousin was dead & so was his guardian. The solicitor then told us we need to administer an intestate estate in Australia and is refusing to offer any help or to meet with us. The size of the estate is tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands so smallish to be honest. Matters are made worse by the fact that the person('a consultant') who did the work in the practice, no longer works with the firm. The second cousin does not want to help with the problem.
So what would you accept as a fair outcome of mediation? I am curious to see everyone's view, as I think I am to annoyed to be impartial at the moment.
I will be engaging in a mediation process with LSRA & a solicitor and I would like your opinion on what you think would be a fair outcome for the mediation. The LSRA have agreed the complaint is admissible for 'inadequate legal services'.
Here are the details.
My Uncle in Summer 2016 died intestate leaving only four beneficiaries, my Dad (who was 80 at the time), two aunts & one first cousin (who's dead father was a brother to the deceased uncle). My Dad (who only had a primary school education .. left school in the 1940s) asked me to help him with the paperwork & the solicitor. The house was sold, debts were paid and in spring 2017 the solicitor emailed to say all the beneficiaries were to get their money, which in autumn 2017 my Dad & my two Aunts got their money. I did their IT38 returns for them. My first cousin, who was severely disabled and lives in Australia since birth did not get their money, which we only found out in 2023. The solicitor had been directly corresponding with his legal guardian in 2016 & 2017. My cousin has no children, spouse, aunts, uncles or first cousins and to be honest was not in touch with his Irish relatives since his Mum & Dad died in early 2000s. We have no connection with any of my cousins Australian relatives. Talking to an Australian second cousin, we established there was no other first cousins alive in Australia.
From autumn 2017 until autumn 2023 we had no communication from the solicitor and we though the estate was finalised. My cousin died 2020, his guardian died in 2022, the last closest relative in Australia.
In Autumn 2023 we got an email from another solicitor in the firm saying we need to send the money to Australia, we then told the solicitor my cousin was dead & so was his guardian. The solicitor then told us we need to administer an intestate estate in Australia and is refusing to offer any help or to meet with us. The size of the estate is tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands so smallish to be honest. Matters are made worse by the fact that the person('a consultant') who did the work in the practice, no longer works with the firm. The second cousin does not want to help with the problem.
So what would you accept as a fair outcome of mediation? I am curious to see everyone's view, as I think I am to annoyed to be impartial at the moment.
