Buachaill, • I asked a solicitor (in March 2018) to mediate…

1. Dear *****, I would certainly recommend you use the Law Society´s "excessive fees" jurisdiction to query the fee charged by the solicitor in this instance. Ultimately, your argument should be twofold, firstly that there was a conflict of interest in the advice given by the solicitor as he had represented the developer such that the advice was worthless and secondly that the fee charged was excessive as no outcome to the issue with the developer was reached.

2. The second point you need to be aware of is that there is no bar upon the solicitor suing you for the 6k fees just because the solicitor did not comply with the section 68 letter requirement. Failure to send a section 68 letter does not prevent a solicitor suing for his fees and if the court finds them owing, the court can give judgment for the amount claimed.

3. However, no court will give judgment for a solicitor´s fees if there is a complaint to the Law Society under the "excessive fees" jurisdiction ongoing. So, you should use this process to lower or eliminate the fee claimed altogether.

4. However, if the solicitor sues you, then you should use the argument that the conflict of interest arising whereby the solicitor had previously represented the developer meant that there was a total failure of consideration as any advice given was ultimately worthless, as it was tainted by the inherent conflict of the solicitor having represented both you and the developer at different times.

6. As the Mafia say, this solicitor is "speaking out of both sides of his mouth"! You need to realise that a solicitor is always agent for any client for which he acts. So saying that he only acted as agent for the developer is like saying that the ice cream in a 99 cone is white! It means nothing. A solicitor either acts for a client or they do not. There is no halfway house where you say "I smoked but I didn´t inhale!" So there is a conflict of interest here and anything the solicitor tells you to the contrary is duplicitous. To have cured this conflict of interest the solicitor would have to have mentioned it to you at the beginning and got your written consent to acting for you. This he didn´t do.

7. You are welcome.