Taking your Laywer to Court In Spain

Like many, we never received the required Bank Guarantees from Polaris World/Cam, even though we had appointed a Lawyer to look after this side of things for us, and who gave us a written contract stating that they would deal with Polaris and collect all of the guarantees etc.....Even after we had paid our first deposit to Polaris, did our Lawyer still insist that we pay the 2nd Deposit when they knew that they had not even collected the Bank Guarantee for the 1st Deposit!!!

Yes in hindsight we should not have paid the 2nd Deposit, but you tend to trust Lawyers and legal people as you think they are bound by lots of regulation and rules etc...

Does anyone know of any Case Law or instances more recently, where Lawyers like ours have been sued by their clients for negligence and malpractice if this is what you would call it???

I did read somewhere that all Lawyers in Spain have to have Indemnity Insurance....Maybe we could claim against this???, as I am sure the Lawyer is still in business and operating today...

 Hi Josey

Look at the Links below. I am sure you will find a suitable answer. Read through these threads for more information.

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/costaluz/6917/legal-tip-741-indemnity-actions-against-lawyers.aspx

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/costaluz/8318/legal-tip-856-lawyers%C2%B4negligency.aspx

Lawyers are liable as proffessionals as they signed the contrat without the required bank guarantees being in place as Law 57/68 requests.

http://www.eyeonspain.com/forums/posts-long-16949.aspx

Good Luck

Regards

I've looked into this and finding another lawyer to take a lawyer to court is the problem.

I changed my lawyers, (I can't say publically who they were for fear of litigation but my UK number is 01270 259740), almost 2 years ago, to GM Legal Experts who said they would be prepared to take my last lot to the Murcia Law Socierty but the advice I have is that all they'll get is a rap on the knuckles and a letter of reprimand.  I certainly won't get my money back, £22K plus 7 years interest!!!

Litigating against a lawyer in Spain is expensive and you shouldn't judge Spanish Law in the same breath as English Law, and yes you are right their insurance requirements in no way match those of the UK.

It looks like you are in the same position as I am.  My deposit was never transferred to the bank issuing the guarantee and although under Spanish law 57/68 this shouldn't matter nevertheless my ex-solicitors signed a waiver preventing me from suing the bank, something I explicitly told them not to do.

You can read more about my plight at www.3molinos.co.uk.

I wish you good luck but I suspect it will be all bad.  I'll never set foot in Sapin again, I hate the country, it's lawyers and legal system.  Most of all I hate the Spainsh government who should tell the banks to voluntarily comply with 57/68, and I hate the UK government for letting them get away with it.  We should kick them out of the EU and tell Santander to get of our high street.

Rant over!

All lawyers carry insurance . they are insured by the college who granted them the qualification it is not expensive to claim on insurance .

Insurance???

My ex-solicitor approached his insurance who agreed with him that he wasn't negligent.  So where do I go from there?

I first have to prove negligence?  I need a Spanish lawyer to do this, etc, etc,

Hi Josey,,

Just like you we did not receive any BG for the 1st deposit. Our lawyer threatened to sue Polaris  if they did not provide us with the BG. After 9 months they did, but at the same time Polaris asked for the 2nd deposit, in reply to this request our lawyer wrote Polaris a registerd mail we were going to pay the 2nd deposit as soon as we received the BG, so BG before payment. Our lawyer advised us against paying the 2nd installment, we never paid  the 2 nd installment.

Edmy

Looks like Edmy found a competent Spanish Lawyer.

My ex-lawyer received a note from the developer saying that my second deposit, not paid into the bank who subsequently issued the BG, had been tranferred to the 'special' account with the bank who did issue a BG, (for the full amount but only agreed to refund the actual depost made if my ex-lawyers signed a waiver, which they did against my explicit instructions not to do so).

My ex-lawyer didn't check that the transfer had taken place and when I broached him his reply was 'I considered this sufficient', even though he had previously stated, in writing, that it was important to make sure the money was transferred and a copy of the transfer document obtained.

I still wonder who he was working for?

His insurance company said this wasn't negligence.  I think the word negligence has a different meaning in Spain than in the UK.