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  • Cost of a Lawyer to represent me at Scottish Small Claims Court?
  • scottyjohn
    Free Member

    Hi all,
    Hoping someone can give me a rough idea how much a lawyer charges to attend court on my behalf. I have been taking the guy who sold us our house to small claims for £1600 we had to pay out to fix dodgy plumbing and heating when we took the keys of the house. After a year of mucking about we got heard two weeks ago and the judge said go and have a chat and try and sort this out, as its quite a complex case and will need a lawyer at court to argue the legal points. So we sat and he said after a lot or arguing “Ill give you £800″ So he said Ill give you £600 tomorrow and then the extra £200 next week you have my word.”
    So we said to the judge we had agreement, and he said he would continue till 6th June to make sure I get paid. So the guy hands a cheque in last week, just as Im about to go away for the holidays, and I have been to his house to see where the extra £200 is, but noone home. So looks like Im going back to court tomorrow for the 4th time to say he hasn’t paid and I now want to go to proof and appoint a solicitor. I don’t know ho much this will cost, and I feel so angry and stressed. Any advice about this would be much appreciated.

    tthew
    Full Member

    I can’t give any advice from experience, but it’ll likely be more than the £200 owed.

    Although the whole case may be complex, surely now you are just going to the judge to get the agreement you reached enforced? That’s not hard and shouldn’t need a lawyer.

    druidh
    Free Member

    scottyjohn – Member
    I feel so angry and stressed

    £200 worth of stressed?

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    footflaps
    Full Member

    We had a barrister for an eviction hearing – cost was £250 + VAT / half day. NB This was in England.

    craigxxl
    Free Member

    Aren’t solicitors frowned upon in a small claims court as the purpose of them is to keep costs down?

    footflaps
    Full Member

    If you add on Solicitor fees and court fee, final cost was £600-700 all in for a 10 minute hearing.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Complete waste of money to go to proof for £200, you are talking thousands, you’ll just end up kicking yourself, even if you “win”, you’ll still be out £££.

    just tell the Sheriff where matters stand and give the guy more time or write it off. DO you have a written agreement?

    scottyjohn
    Free Member

    Jeez. I just hate the feeling that I am being humped over and over from this guy. The boiler in the house was unsafe and leaking gases into our bedroom, despite having lied to us when he was showing us the house, saying that the boiler was under maintenance by Scottish gas, and it would be fully serviced before we took the house. We know this was a lie as he has since produced dodgy letters from a guy doing a homer repair on the boiler. What makes this worse was the fact he knew we have a baby in the house, and he is a firefighter!

    scottyjohn
    Free Member

    No Al, the judge just asked if we had reached an agreement, and then said he would continue the case till tomorrow to make sure I got paid 🙁 Looks like I will need to go and give him more time to pay. Just hate wide boys that get the better of you.

    bedmaker
    Full Member

    I thought the whole idea of small claims court was for ‘small claims’ which would otherwise be dwarfed by the parasites lawyers fee? Bit rubbish if that’s not the case.

    and he is a firefighter!

    I sense this thread may be about to explode 😆

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Trust me (I am/was a lawyer) it’s better this way than getting embroiled, still hating the other guy and also gutted about your expenses.

    TBH it sounds as if you’ve done well on your own, so try to feel good about that.

    showerman
    Free Member

    so he is a fireman.. all your facts are correct and you have proof.. send them on to his employer..they are always banging on about house safty then he pulls this sort of stunt if you or your family had died and this information got out do not think they would be to happy about the service being shown in a bad light

    poly
    Free Member

    I’d suggest you should be asking the question of the solicitor who did your conveyancing and therefore who was involved in drafting or approving the wording in your contract. I’d be surprised if you can find a solicitor doing court work for < £120/hr and it should probably be £200 if you want a strong chance of winning on a point of law. They’ll want at least an hour to appraise themselves of the facts, and you’ll need to budget at least a couple of hours in court.

    My interpretation of the Sheriff’s “this involves a point of law” comment, is him really saying, “its not going to be clear cut, is it really worth the battle/risk?”. I guess its possible that if you both engage lawyers the Sheriff ultimately finds in his favour, and you not only have to repay him the £600 you have, but also some of his costs?

    £1600 is a lot of money for a boiler repair simply to make it functional and safe, which is what I suspect the court would decide was reasonable if they do decide he needs to pay anything. If you’ve actually ended up with a better / higher value system as a result you may not be entitled to as much as that. I’d probably ask the Sheriff (or his Clark) if he is able to enforce the £800 agreement easily but if there is an issue be prepared to walk away.

    I’ve been on both sides of that equation (with much low ever value repairs) and the advice was the clause really wasn’t worth the effort of enforcing because of the costs and uncertainty involve.

    scottyjohn
    Free Member

    It really has illustrated how ineffective the legal system is for small claims. I bought a property and engaged a solicitor to handle the conveyancing, as is required by law I believe, and they then handle the formation of a contract between myself and the vendor, with a view to handling the transaction and protecting both parties. In that contract I have an intimation period (14 days I think) where I inform my lawyer of any defects. This all happened within the period. I am not even claiming for the boiler repair as this was discovered outside of the 14 days. This was due to the fact that there were numerous water leaks when we entered the property, so emergency callout to plumber on a bank holiday weekend. Bathroom out, floorboards up, and the ceilings had to be brought down. Then when the plumber was checking the heating after putting the water on, there were 5 radiators which were leaking and wouldn’t seal. The plumber stripped the valves off and stated that the radiators were corroded inside and would need to be replaced. So thats why the plumber’s bill was £1600. I haven’t claimed for the boiler repairs, any of the decor or plaster work, as I had friends who fixed this for me. Looks like I’ll need to put it down to experience and walk away. My lawyer who handled the sale said if I wanted to take it further when he said he wouldn’t pay me anything initially, stated that his firm didn’t do court work, but with small claims you didn’t need a lawyer. So went down that route and then got mucked about by the court, by him, and then even if I had won, the court can’t enforce payment. In Scotland even with a judgement against him, this does not affect his credit score at all, so is in effect useless. Great system isn’t it!
    Thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciated as usual! 🙂

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Isn’t the usual clause that the systems should operate in accordance with their age and condition…i.e. not like brand new? I suspect that may be the complexity the Sheriff alluded to.

    Courts don’t enforce payments, but if you can prove your claim (or agreement to pay), it will grant decree in those terms and you can then get sheriff officers to enforce it.

    I agree tho the court system must be a ‘mare for the lay person, even for a straightforward claim. Did you seek advice from CAB or similar?

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