Have you ever received bad legal advice?

Question

And if you have, how did this impact on the proceedings? I'm particularly interested in criminal and family proceedings but throw anything else in if you wish.

Answer 1

Yes, I was hit by a drunk driver who left me for dead. He was only tracked down because an eye witness came forward. I hired an attorney because I had extensive medical bills, lost my job and my car was totaled. My attorney told me that I did not need to appear because they would be taking testimony from the other side and I would be called the following week. Unbeknownst to me, though, the attorney made a deal with the other side citing that I didn't bother to show up in court. All told, the guy walked away scot free and the attorneys took everything.

Answer 2

Was once advised to settle out of court for an amount which (barely) covered legal costs. A few years later and I'd started to study law and found out that with the evidence I had I would have won substantial damages (it was an Employment Tribunal). Maria didn't get bad legal advice she just didn't get any legal advice at all and she learnt the lesson the hard way!

Answer 3

My partner was left a house with his sister by their parents, since the parents died my partner had to give up evening classes and work full time in order to pay the bills, council tax ect. His sister on the other hand was only paying for the insurace on the house as she was living away from home and was attending college.

The two of them allowed tennents to stay in the house with my partner, the money from the rent they paid was to go into an account and was to be used to make any repairs and decorate when they decieded to sell. However the acount was the sisters name and my partner never saw what happened to it. a few years down the line the heating broke and needed to be replaced. my partner had been left some money and had to use that to pay for the repairs.

A few months down the line his sister having finished her course a year earlier decided to go to college again, halfway through the college year she couldnt afford to continue and it was decieded that she would use some of the money from the rent to carry on a college and my partner would get whatever was left over.

When he asked to see the bank statements she got really irate and wouldnt allow it...we have not seen a penny of this so called house fund.

On top of this incedent we have another where it was decied that we would move out of the house so that work could be done on it and it could be sold. A year later the work started.

My partner was to pay his sister for lost earnings as she had to come down to the house to complete the work as he was working full time and she was not. On top of this he had to pay her fuel and on one occasion her food as she had brought food but the fridge and freezer had been turned off and hhad gone moldy, we cleaned them and they were usable yet we still had to pay.

The sister took my partner to their solicitor and drew up an agreement stating all of this, my partner complained that it didnt seem very fair but the solicitor said, "If you dont agree to this then she will do all the work and you will only get what the house is worth now and she will get everything else." Meaning If the house was worth £130,000 now my partner would recieve when it was sold £65,000 and if after all the work was completed the house was worth £230,000 Then he would still only get That amount and his sister the rest.

Also the solisitor said that if his sister took him to court to make him pay her some money then she would win and she wanted something like £30,000 to ccover what she wanted to do.

It wasnt til after everything was done with and she had her money that the solisitor released all the documents about what he had paid....we had asked for receipts for everything and stated that unless there was a receipt the item would not be paid.

In amounts the paperwork we found receipts for restaurants for her and her boyfriend, take aways for her and her boyfriend, Easter eggs, presents to her friends, credit card receipts with no itemised bill and found we had paid for all the carpets to be replaced when all they needed was cleaning and there is nothing we can do about it.

We ended up paying about £3000 more than we had to....

Answer 4

oh my gosh, we had the worst legal representaion while my husband was going thru his custody proceedings. Our lawyer actually tried to rush us thru reading the final order before we had to sign it because his son had a boy scout meeting that afternoon and he wanted to get out of the court room. I still get upset thinking about that man.

Answer 5

i think we all have at one point or another,

mine was to deal with a shop lifter,he didn`t want to stop with goods, i stopped him, advised by legal to drop case as his legal got paid more per day then i did (at that time) per year.

i very nearly got done for assault with intent?, and he got a bottle of bubble from the store as an apology.

think i should say that i was not overly forceful or that, and and an off duty PC assisted me in the arrest ( and that's how i din`t get charged with assault, PC statement)

Answer 6

Poor Maria and her partner really had a bad deal.
The sister must be a dreadful person.
Haven't had any bad legal advice,sorry.

Answer 7

Not every solicitor knows his stuff, and not every tactic will work every time in a courtroom. It really is a roll of the dice any way you go and you have to accept the outcome.

Answer 8

you want felony suggestion. maximum references at present are tick sheets. it really is unusual for employers to assert what yours has finished, why? because they could get sued. they could grant info. Your agency has positioned herself deep contained in the doo doo. telephone ACAS to commence with, yet you would want to ascertain a Solicitor. strong success.

Answer 9

Not bad legal advice it was the law that was bad.

Answer 10

Yes, from a public defender.