“never reply to any letters from solicitors or lawyers”.
He used to go out with a barrister here in the UK and meant that the whole legal system with solicitors revolves around them trying to make money out of any possible issue they can find. But for them to do that they need you to play along with their game. For example if I would require my solicitor to reply to another solicitors letter they charge me £450 ($900)!
So he adviced me, the only people you need to reply or take seriously is the police, a judge or the tax man.
Can this be true?
Some recent events with a legal dispute I have, have made me think it might be true.
To a degree it probably is true. I think there is always a risk that the other person will just go to court, but if thats going to cost more money than that the case is worth, then ignoring letters is probably your best move. I would probably get legal advice anyway just to be on the safe side.
it really depends on the situation. sometimes it’s true, but sometimes not replying can land you in court where replying can keep you out of it. there’s no law here that i’m aware of that says you must reply to a lawyer.
Depends on the situation, but the majority of people hire a solicitor/attorney to intimidate their adversaries, but have no intention of actually following through on a lawsuit.
Especially in the UK, my understanding is that the plaintiff filing the lawsuit is automatically responsible for the defense’s costs if the plaintiff loses… so that’s a strong disincentive to actually file a lawsuit unless you are very sure you’re going to win. Unfortunately, we have no such protections in the US, so someone can file a lawsuit with no chance of prevailing and cost the other side tens of thousands of dollars to get it dismissed.
The one other thing AJ and i have both been known to do is to intentionally spend as much time as humanly possible (ourselves) talking to the other side’s attorney and therefore running up their bill. Our time is basically free, but the other side’s time is costing them $200-400 per hour. As long as you don’t admit to anything, play dumb, and ask a million questions, ask them to repeat their explanations and ask the same questions over and over… this can be a fun game.
But if you don’t want to mess with that, I’d say if the claim is bogus, just ignore the solicitor’s letter. Your adversary is unlikely to want to risk paying all your legal fees and costs if he loses.
I think in the UK the looser pays costs irrespective of whether they are the plaintiff or defendant. IMO thats as it should be. I think its wrong that Americans can win a case and still have to pay their own costs, as them winning means that they are in the right.
yes - I would agree that a letter or document from an attorney should be taken seriously and handed over to your counsel - most attorneys I know wouldn’t charge to look something over… but, they would charge to answer the correspondence if necessary
ignoring something could be asking for problems down the road -
[QUOTE=AnthonyDeAngelo;20145]most attorneys I know wouldn’t charge to look something over… but, they would charge to answer the correspondence if necessary
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Same here.
If they do need to reply and it costs you money, you can sue the other side for harassment at the very least.
Oh they are all the same over here! Its a complicated issue in my case in regards to Trademarks here in the UK which I’m trying to register. And at the moment it seems I will gain nothing other than a big bill and both my solicitor and the defending one is doing this just for their own gain.
