So, the funds under the contract for the provision of legal services have been paid, but the services themselves have not been provided or have been provided with poor quality - what to do? Is it possible to get my money back? Can! But let us note right away that it will not be so easy, so do not waste your time and nerves - turn to professionals.
ATTENTION : our lawyer for the protection of the rights of consumers of services will help you return the money paid for poorly rendered legal services: professionally, on favorable terms and on time. Call today!
How to get money back from a law firm?
In accordance with the norms of current legislation, you are a client (consumer, customer), and a law firm or an individual lawyer, a lawyer is an executor, so defend your rights and compensate for losses incurred.
The grounds for termination of the contract may be:
- Complete unfulfilled services in accordance with the contract, obligations (for example, the lawyer did not draw up a statement of claim, and also did not represent interests in court without explaining the reasons)
- Partial failure to fulfill a contract for the provision of legal assistance (for example, the filing of a claim took place, but the client had to submit it independently)
- The deadlines for the provision of services were significantly violated (for example, the procedural deadline for filing an appeal was missed, which entails negative consequences for the client)
- The legal services provided do not meet the concepts of “quality”, “professional”, “highly qualified”
- Other grounds that are best discussed with our lawyer in order to understand the possibility of their application in a dispute about termination of a contract with lawyers
If at least one of the above circumstances exists, demand termination of the contract and return of expenses incurred, compensation for losses, penalties, and fines. Of course, all actions must be completed in writing with proof of sending or receiving the relevant claims. If the claim is not satisfied, you can go to court.
USEFUL : a complaint against a lawyer often helps to solve a problem; it is better to entrust the drafting of this document to us; for more information about the proposal and possibilities of this method of protecting your rights, read the link
Who is a lawyer?
Based on the interpretation of the current legislation, a lawyer should be understood as a person who has certain knowledge, which is confirmed by the appropriate status (that is, this person has previously passed a qualification exam in the chamber, has a “crust” confirming his status, and more).
A lawyer is endowed with certain rights and responsibilities: for example, he can send requests, receive information (with the exception of various secrets) necessary to consider and resolve the case, and so on.
The work of a lawyer, of course, is paid. The amount of payment is established in the agreement between the lawyer and his client.
How to prove poor quality legal services?
Subject to proof:
- violation of contractual obligations
- cause-and-effect relationship between the damage caused and the “services provided”
Important : signing an acceptance certificate for services provided, with a note in it that the parties have no claims against each other regarding the quality of services and their payment, cannot be an unconditional basis for refusing to satisfy the relevant claims. After all, unscrupulous lawyers often provide the document to the client at the stage of concluding the agreement. Be careful about the documents you sign so as not to end up in a controversial situation.
The following may be presented as evidence:
- Correspondence by email , which can confirm the sending of a completed procedural document already outside the deadline for its submission or the agreed time for its creation in the contract with the lawyer
- Written documents that will be presented as evidence of improper provision of legal assistance
- Audio recordings , if you made a voice recorder during communication in a legal organization
- Video recordings , if they took place during negotiations or during the provision of services
- Testimony , do not forget that witnesses may include your close relatives, friends, third parties who witnessed certain events to which you are referring
- Other evidence that you can provide to prove that you are right in the dispute
Please note that if a lawyer does not achieve your goal, for example, to win a lawsuit, this does not mean that the services provided are of poor quality. In this case, you will have to prove that it was the lawyer’s incompetence that led to the negative result.
Restoration of procedural deadlines
Poor provision of legal services to a client is not a basis for providing the injured client with any preferences from the court, for example, in the form of restoration of procedural and other deadlines.
This is due to the fact that the law does not connect such a possibility with establishing the fact of providing poor-quality legal assistance, unless we are talking about some exceptional case when it is necessary to eliminate obvious injustice in order to restore violated rights, as happened with one heiress who missed deadline for accepting inheritance. The missed deadline was caused by the fact that she received incorrect legal advice from employees of the administration of the municipal formation “Ust-Omchug village”, who informed her of the need to contact a notary for registration of inheritance rights only after six months from the date of opening of the inheritance. It is for this reason that the heiress did not contact him earlier, which the court took into account and restored the deadline for accepting the inheritance (Decision of the Khasynsky District Court of the Magadan Region dated April 28, 2012 in case No. 2T-105/2012).
Right to refuse legal services
As stated above, you are a consumer of services, therefore, in accordance with Article 32 of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights, you have the right to refuse to provide services before signing the acceptance certificate.
However, by law, you must reimburse the party for the costs incurred and documented, of course, if these services are of high quality and related to the contract concluded between you.
How to do it? Send appropriate notice to the party. In this case, the contract is considered terminated from the moment the party receives such notification.
Important : the contract may contain other termination conditions, so first of all you need to “start” from the contract, but if the conditions do not comply with the law, then they can be declared invalid, do not forget about this when you analyze the contract.
