Amy's story

Amy said:

I appointed a well-known legal firm to deal with my divorce and was hopeful that I could get this very painful process over with as quickly as possible. All I wanted to do was try to move on with my life.  Within weeks, it was clear that that wasn’t going to happen.  There was delay after delay, and my solicitor failed to return my calls, sometimes for weeks on end.  It was adding a lot of additional stress to what was already a very difficult period.  Eventually, out of frustration, I contacted the SLCC, although I was worried about the impact that this would have on my relationship with my solicitor – would they decide to stop representing me? And if so, would I be back to square one?

The SLCC said:

We wrote to Amy and to the firm to explain that the complaint was eligible and put the offer of mediation on the table.  They both agreed to give it a go, and the mediation went better than either of them had expected. The firm explained why there had been problems in progressing matters and why that had resulted in a delay in finalising the divorce.  However, they did accept that they could have kept Amy better updated and going forward, agreed to provide fortnightly updates on progress.  They also made an ex gratia payment to Amy as a gesture of goodwill.  Amy was happy with the explanation and offer provided by the firm and confirmed that she did not wish to proceed further with her complaint.  Her divorce is currently being finalised.