Pensioner facing eviction 'over legal bill' after solicitor complaint

Paul Cowdrey, a pensioner from Rochdale, claims he is being evicted after complaining about the solicitor who handled his father's will.

Mr Cowdrey said his home, part of his late father's inheritance, is being sold to pay a £130,000 legal debt owed to a solicitor.

He said he complained to the Law Society about the amount of hours he was being billed for by solicitor Michael Sandler.

Mr Cowdrey said he was then billed by Mr Sandler for investigating the complaint.

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk says the Law Society, solicitors acting for the Legal Complaints Service and the SRA were initially supportive towards Mr Cowdrey’s complaint and he was given firm assurances that Mr Sandler was unable to charge for dealing with complaints.

However, two High Court judges have ruled Mr Sandler was was entitled to charge for dealing with the complaint.

Mr Danczuk has accused The Law Society, solicitors acting for the Legal Complaints Service (subsequently replaced by the Legal Ombudsman) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) of "failing to protect beneficiaries of wills" and "giving misleading information that has led to a pensioner losing his home".

Mr Danczuk, who has met with the Law Society twice and the Justice Minister to complain about how the case has been handled, said he believed the regulator owed Mr Cowdrey a duty of care.

“They have given him appalling advice, been shown to not understand the law and have hung my constituent out to dry,” he said. “This case shows that the SRA is not just toothless but wholly incompetent and solicitors are running rings around the regulators. My constituent rightly trusted the advice of the regulator but this has cost him dearly and he and his wife are about to be made homeless as a result.”

The chief executive of the SRA has subsequently written to Mr Danczuk to say he is “sorry”, but accepts no responsibility.

Mr Danczuk raised the matter in Parliament at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday 9 April, he asked: "My constituent Paul Cowdrey is to lose his home after raising concerns about overcharging by solicitor Michael Chandler. This solicitor from hell found a loophole by which he could sue my constituent for complaining.

"The Solicitor's Regulation Authority described Sandler as 'morally reprehensible' but say they are powerless to act.

"Will the Prime Minister look at this case and intervene to stop solicitors running rings round their regulator?"

Prime Minister David Cameron responded: "I'm happy to look into this case.

"As the Honourable Gentleman will know, the legal regulators and the legal ombudsman, which were improved over previous years, they are independent of government so it's not possible to intervene directly, but what I can do is arrange for a meeting between him and the minister for legal services to discuss what remedies are open to his constituent and if that would be helpful I will certainly put that in place."

In a statement published on the solicitor's website, Keogh's Nicholls Lindsell & Harris, they have responded saying: "It is deeply regrettable that Mr Danczuk saw fit to make disparaging remarks about Mr Sandler that were totally unjustified and repeated comments made by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which were not just misguided but outside its remit, and about which the firm is making separate complaint.

"Mr Danczuk’s question was also highly misleading by failing to draw to the attention of the House that Mr Sandler and this firm had acted lawfully and with the full approval of the Courts throughout.

"It is disappointing and frustrating that Mr Danczuk did not contact us in advance so that we could disabuse him, and made his comments under a purported cloak of Parliamentary privilege leaving us without a right of reply. However, we fully intend to complain in the most robust terms to the office of the Speaker of the House in order to seek Mr Danczuk’s censure and his unqualified apology."