Statement of Claim against me

[triton07]

Hi All,

A solicitor firm has filed a Statement of Claim against me through the Registrar of the Local Court.

About a year ago I had contact this Solicitor firm wanting to find out what is the process at selling one of my IP’s, at that time I spoke over the phone to solicitors administration & asking them that I’m interested in selling a property & wanted to know what are the steps in selling one and how much it will cost me for preparing a sale contract, while finding out all information the administration got my full name & also asked me where the property is located, if it is in NSW, I said yes it’s based in NSW & gave them the full address of the property.

So going by this conversation over the phone, the whole purpose was just to get an idea with selling a property; I’ve never sold one in my life time.

But then over the weekend me & wife had a discussion & agreed that we will hold off and not go ahead with selling our property. Just to be generous & happy to use solicitor firm for future sales or purchases, I contacted their office letting them know that we will hold off with the sale of the property & will get back to them when we decide to go ahead in the near future.

Following a week after that I received a mail being a Tax Invoice from solicitor being for “ Your Proposed Sale” on property “”””””’””””””NSW. I was shocked when I saw this tax invoice, when I never even thought that the sale has gone ahead, they have billed me for disbursements such as Section 149 Certificate fees; Vendor disclosure search fees & Sewer Diagram a total of $164. Now I know it’s not much money to pay, but that’s not the point why should I pay it when I never agreed to go ahead with sale on the property, I never signed any service agreement document.

And like I said, now they want to see me at court & pay for all damages.
Is this fair; is this the way the law runs? Now they want me to pay all up with court fees + the tax invoice $509.

Can anyone tell me if I stand a chance in not paying this amount & get myself a solicitor, or should I just go in and pay up & shut up?

Spoke to this solicitor firm & they say that I instructed them to go ahead, which I did not & like I said never signed any service agreement document.

Why do people do such things, trying to take money from people that only made a phone call for basic information?

Cheers
George

 

[Rolf Latham]

Geeze Louise

Sounds pretty dodgy to me !

ta
rolf

 

[nhb74]

I'm not an expert, but It would seem to me if you didn't sign anything and they can't prove you gave them the goahead then you don't have to pay??

It will be interesting to see what experts have to say.

 

[plusnq]

Ask them for the signed form where you authorised them to perform the searches on your behalf. My solicitors always produce one to sign before searches are conducted.

Cheers

Shane

 

[depreciator]

Sounds to me like someone in the office might have jumped the gun and done a couple of searches and they are trying to cover the cost of them. Dills. I'm sure I have always had to sign something before any searches are done.
Scott

 

[Raddles]

Hi there T

before a solicitor can bill you - they are meant to have a cost agreement with you - or if it is under a certain threshold (used to be $750) - they don't have to have a cost agreement but there still needs to be an understanding about costs.

I will PM you with the details of the legal costing firm I work with whose head office is in Sydney - you may like to give them a call to consider your options.
thanks

 

[linglc]

Hi,

I guess this is one of the "problems" in life that you don't need right now, and I understand that it causes unnecessary stress.

Personally, I do not think it is correct (in principle) to pay up and shut up for something that you have not done.

If you are comfortable with addressing the Court, I reckon it is going to be better for you to be self-represented and appear in Court, rather than incur cost to retain a solicitor. Courts do tend to give more leeway to self-rep parties.

Meanwhile, it would be wise if you could ensure that:-

- you note down a time-line of all the communication that you or whoever (on your behalf) have made to the firm;

- you note down was what said during each communication to be best of your recollection; and

- you appear at each Court return date / mention.

From the information that you have given, it seems that you only contacted the firm by telephone and contact was made with an admin staff (rather than a solicitor/partner of the firm). It would be interesting to see what happens when you ask the Plaintiff to produce any written retainer / authority that you have signed to initiate the work conducted.

Keep the forum informed of the progress of the matter, and good luck.

Cheers,

linglc

 

[The Fence]

Just makes my blood boil.......scum bag solicitor preying on the public.

Sorry to hear of this and do keep us informed...I agree tho, no signature no pay up....!

 

[Pushka]

How long a time period between sending the Invoice and then receiving the court notice? Did you contact them when you received the Tax Invoice or just sit for a bit?

 

[Raddles]

Hi there
Pushka is making a valid point - you have 12 months to challenge a bill - and ask for an itemised account. If nothing was done until the statement of claim was received - more than 12 months after the account - you may have problems challenging it now.

If however, at the time you did state that you had not given them instructions to act - you would be in a better position to defend the matter.
Hopefully you have good records to prove any communication with them.
thanks

 

[BV]

George

It sounds to me that you had given them instructions to prepare the contract and to do the searches otherwise they wouldn't have done any of this work.

In my opinion you should have paid the invoice or should have challenged it and resolved the issue earlier because now it could end up costing you a lot more.

I'd start by talking to the solicitor firm.
Go there and take someone with you as a witness and try to sort things out.
Don't dig the hole any bigger.
As soon as you involve another solicitor you'll pay more.

Good luck

 

[triton07]

Thanks all for your replies.

No instructions was given to go ahead, phone discussion was only to obtain information for a sale on a property.

My wife is also owner of this property, so how can this solicitor say that I've given them instructions, when there are two owners recorded on this property. If wife does not agree to go ahead with sale of the property how can is it possible for solicitor to prepare sale contract?

Guys, I don't want to make this a big issue, like I said it's not the money I need to pay, but more like why should it be this way, I really want to make things clear & fair to the system.


Cheers
George

 

[Raddles]

Hi there T
apart from defending the statement of claim - you might like to raise the issue with the Legal Commissioner and the law society
- there are actually a lot of obligations on solicitors to disclose how they are going to charge in a matter - so if they are not complying with those obligations - they should be rapped over the knuckles.
thanks

 

[Y33]

You might want to elaborate more on the time line between when you first rang them for advice and then notified them of your intentions not to proceed. They will need to produce evidence of when they started the searches etc. This could be your smoking gun if the situation is only 24-72 hours apart like Friday afternoon to Monday morning.

If you plan on representing your self then study up on rules and procedures of court requirements. Start your documentation now if you haven't already and write out all dialogue you can remember plus all names, times and dates of who you spoke too.

Possible bad news.

You don't need a formal written contract or letter of authorisation for them to act on your behalf. A phone call is sufficient for a verbal agreement as in telphone orders for COD. The strong point of there case is having all your information.

 

[BV]

The strong point of there case is having all your information.

I agree and I don't know if it was your intention to give them all of the details but from the information you are giving us it seems to me that if you try to fight the case it could end up costing you much more.

When it comes to matters which could involve courts it's often better to pay and walk away.

 

[Pushka]

It is stating the obvious but remember the Court is 'staffed' by lawyers!

 

[triton07]

How long a time period between sending the Invoice and then receiving the court notice? Did you contact them when you received the Tax Invoice or just sit for a bit?

Tax invoice was received March 2008 & court notice received 2 days ago.

As soon as Tax invoice arrived in mail & urgently contacted the office & spoke to solicitors administration asking them questions to why did they proceed with searches when I never asked them to go ahead.


Like I said, when at first point of phone contact and asking them a simple question on what are the procedures in obtaining a sale contract & the cost involved, the young lady over the phone asked me for my Full Name & property address, & we (me & solicitors admin) agreed that I & wife will go to their office to discuss further, since my wife is also owner of the property.

I really don't want to stress over this matter, not worth the $509, I might as well just pay up & shut up. But like I said it's not a fair system, how these people can get away with lie's, and they call them self to be Justice of Pease, hey?

I hope this Statement of Claim does not put a bad credit rating on me.


Cheers
George

 

[Raddles]

Hi there
ask for an itemised account - they can't sue you while that request is on the table
they actually can't issue the statement of claim within 12 months of the tax invoice - you do have grounds to defend it
lodge a complaint with the Legal Services Commissioner - who could assist you in having this claim withdrawn
normally it is a judgment that affects your credit rating
thanks

 

[BeccH]

As a conveyancer in NSW I have worked for various Solicitors firms both city and country. I have also previously worked as a paralegal in a few firms that do debt recovery and defence of debt. It is true that currently costs only need to be disclosed in writing if above $750.00. However, instructions are usually taken verbally and it is usually pretty clear if a marketing contract is to be prepared.

I would start doing everything in writing direct back to the Solicitors firm yourself. Has the Statement of Claim been filed with the Local Court (has a Court seal on it). If it has you only have 28 days from service to defend or pay the monies, otherwise the next stage Judgment can see you "owing" more money. If the SOC hasn't been filed (which sometimes Solicitors do to "scare" you). if you are considering paying, it may only be the intial tax invoice which is owing and not the filing and further Solicitors fees I would definately get onto asap - to avoid further problems though.

Also there is a few cases around which point to an assistant of a Solicitor or Conveyancer not having "authority" to make decisions in some circumstances
Hope this helps
Becc

 

[crc_error]

When it comes to matters which could involve courts it's often better to pay and walk away.

and this is what this crook is counting on.. I say fight them.