Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)
  • Email etiquette (AKA why won’t my bloody solicitor reply to me…)
  • ebennett
    Full Member

    In my industry I’d consider it rude if I didn’t reply to a client within roughly a day of their email (assuming no out-of-office on) – at the very least, I’d send a holding email saying I’d get back to them if I needed to delay a bit longer to answer their query. And if I received an email chasing a response, I’d get my bloody finger out and respond ASAP. Is this normal, or are my expectations too high? We’re up to 3 days with no response so far with my solicitor, and he’s taken 2 weeks to respond before.

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    Send him a fax. He might be one of those who say emails are not official means of communication.

    oldtennisshoes
    Full Member

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    frankconway
    Full Member

    I’m with you OP.
    You could call him – I know it’s old fashioned but, you know.

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    Does he want to bill you not only for reading the email, and eventually responding to it, but also for fielding your follow-up call?

    ebennett
    Full Member

    We’ve had plenty of exchanges over email, he just sometimes goes AWOL for a bit and it gets frustrating. He’s also working from home during COVID and the phone number in his signature just goes to the office, which says “please contact the partners directly”. Except to get his direct dial, I’d have to email him. Which he isn’t responding to. Grrr….

    scuttler
    Full Member

    Send him a letter. He might be one of those who say faxes are not official means of communication.

    Forthwith.

    johndrummer
    Free Member

    Maybe he’s on holiday

    Or worse, maybe he’s suffering from Covid-19

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    Or maybe he’s on reduced hours, WFH, yet expected to still turn around a week’s work.

    ctk
    Free Member

    Get a new solicitor

    stumpyjon
    Full Member

    Solicitors innit, all like that, work to their own timescales but Bill you by the hour.

    mattyfez
    Full Member

    Don’t pay them, take your business elsewhere and email them telling them that, they’ll soon wake up when it’s too late 😀

    cheers_drive
    Full Member

    If it’s for conveyancing then the margins are tiny, they won’t do anything they don’t need to until they’ve got all the duck in a row.

    MartynS
    Full Member

    Very unprofessional.
    email to inform you no longer require their service and bill them for your wasted time.

    fingerbang
    Free Member

    He’s probably working from home, on a crappy laptop and still has to record 7 hours billable hours a day. It might be that there’s no update on your case so he doesn’t want to bill you for spending time on it

    Just ring him and leave a message if he’s unavailable, he ll have to act on that and at least keep a record. Whether he charges you or not depends entirely on the funding agreement you have in place and the nature of the case.

    Short answer – he’s just probably mega busy

    antigee
    Full Member

    Does he want to bill you not only for reading the email, and eventually responding to it, but also for fielding your follow-up call?

    normally would bill you for the office junior reading the email but at his rate…office junior probably stacking supermarket shelves so emails don’t get read

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Is the response something that world take time to research or compose? If so then your “holding email” serves no purpose whatsoever, it’s not going to deliver results any faster.

    If not and two weeks to get any sort of reply is the norm then I’d be finding a different solicitor.

    poly
    Free Member

    Firstly, I think you are probably wrong to consider a reply to an email taking >24 hrs is rude. Email was never conceived as an instant messaging tool – there are other technologies more suited to this.

    Secondly, Did you agree how you would communicate or the service level you would expect either before or during COVID?

    Thirdly, are you happy for him to Bill you £20 for replying to your email with “sorry no further information to provide at this time”?

    Fourthly, have you tried emailing a generic office email or voicemail saying you are concerned you haven’t heard from him? It’s possible your message is in spam, or he’s sick.

    Finally, have you considered whether your email was effectively written in the first place to elicit a response. I get lots of long rambling emails which mostly seem to be rants rather than asking something. I routinely ignore them. I’m clear with everyone I work with that if the purpose of their email is not clear without me scrolling it will not get read.

    grtdkad
    Full Member

    If it makes you feel any better eb, we have exactly the same issue.
    We’ve used our solicitor twice (for conveyancing) before and they’ve been brilliant so as a matter of practicality used them again. This time for probate related stuff.

    All managed by one of their directors. Hopeless.
    After complaining about lack of information we were promised that he’ll “… continue to keep you updated as matters progress” yet doesn’t acknowledge correspondence or contact us from one month to the next.
    Have golf courses opened again?

    Unfortunately he has undermined our trust in the entire business.

    fingerbang
    Free Member

    Some good points above, you could check the client care letter and or term of business as theremight be something along the lines of ‘in order to mitigate costs we will endeavour to only provide you with updates at significant steps in the process or at least every 21 days or so….”

    If the client correspondence gets excessive then it could be disallowed later on, if coats are assessed

    A lot depends on circumstances, and you’re right – a holding email could be non chargeable and will probably be satisfactory.

    Re the probate issue. These can take ages /many years and the district registry was overrun and moving like a glacier before covid. Same as with the court system generally.

    Also , if you re a beneficiary only then sols only have to give you very limited information and will have no retainer with you

    poolman
    Free Member

    Aren’t solicitors the only people who still write letters to each other. I emailed one last week offering to buy a house they are doing the probate on, easy commission I would have thought, I even thought I would get a reply.

    Dream on.

    genesiscore502011
    Free Member

    Let’s hope he and his loved ones are safe and well

    Caher
    Full Member

    Can you put a read receipt on the mail to see it it’s received or even read. Or go round to their house.

    ampthill
    Full Member

    My dad is executor of his sisters will. Quite a big legal job by the looks of it. He said the solicitor is very slow responding to letters. It turns out he was writing to her office. The letter then sits on the door mat until someone goes round to check for mail. They then forward it to her house by post.

    He tried email the other and she responded in under 2 hours

    Mind you with what we are being charged they could courier round a hand written note every time we cough

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Can you put a read receipt on the mail to see it it’s received or even read.

    Almost certainly, but it won’t do anything.

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)

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