in this video I want to take a look at what a solicitor's lien is the
solicitor's lien is a common law concept it basically means that a solicitor can
hold on to a client's file on hill his fees and our clay have been discharged
now this is very relevant if you are somebody who has had a dispute with your
solicitor because the bottom line is you're gonna have a hard time doing
anything or proceeding unless you discharge the solicitors fees now
ultimately the file is your file what he or she the solicitor is entitled to be
paid for the work and entitled to have fees and outlay is discharged this
particular situation has come up fairly recently in my experience in relation to
two or three employment cases under these employment cases what happened was
the employee in one particular case or this broader claim to the workplace
relations Commission how the solicitor the solicitor instructor or barrister
they actually got on very well not the WRC got a very good result in my view
and the employee in question was made quite a significant award of
compensation however when the employee in question received the legal bill it
was queried and a dispute arose and cut to the chase the employee did not pay
the solicitor so it was a bit of a Mexican standoff at that stage and the
employee claimed that he wasn't aware that the solicitor was going to you as a
barrister so on and wasn't aware that the baler was gonna come through the
figure that it did come to but the bottom line is even after getting the
award there would have been a significant payback significant award
still left for the employee in question what happened then however was that the
employer not being happy with the outcome of the WRC decision decided to
appeal the case so the case was then appealed to the labor court now the
employee has a problem because the case is going to the labor court the
solicitor no force solicitor has down tools and he's not going to do anything
until he's paid and he can't really blame him and the employee is expecting
that solicitor to go to the labor court and and deal with the appeal without
having been paid so again a dispute arose and the solicitor said basically
that he wasn't going to represent the client because he was afraid that he
wasn't gonna get paid and he essentially wasn't gonna throw good money after bad
the employee in question then he contacted me and I give him some brief
outline us to course his options were and I actually recommended or told them
that the best thing to do was probably to go to the solicitor and rebuild the
relationship amend offences agree the fee of whatever is hammered out was you
better off having that solicitor who has the file who is familiar with the file
who was instructed a barrister who understands the case to represent him at
the Labour Court appeal the employee done went along to the solicitor and the
solicitors attitude position was to us I'm not prepared to negotiate my fee I'm
entitled to get paid and quite frankly I actually agree with the solicitor he got
a good result he charged a reasonable fee for his time and expertise and he
ought to have been paid the employee then wasn't able to mend the fences
wasn't able to rebuild the relationship with the result then that the Labour
court hearing came on and the employee couldn't get the file off the solicitor
because the solicitor hadn't been paid and other solicitor can take on that
file unless he gives an undertaking to pay the four solicitor but the second
solicitor is not going to take on the file without being in funds because he
gives an undertaking to the four solicitor he's on the hook and he could
get well he could have a hard hanging paid as well particularly in the upper
corner pain was lost so the employee he was in a very difficult position of
having to go through labor court and attempt to represent himself in the
labor court without the file without any preparation and very short notice and up
against the solicitor probably in a barrister on the other side on the
employer side but the fact of the matter is the employee would not have had that
difficulty if he or she had paid off the fee or at least the very least
maintained a decent working relationship with his solicitor because if he did he
would have had a far better chance of holding on to what he had one at the WRC
so that's what a solicitor lien is the solicitors lien is a common law concept
it allows the solicitor to hold on to the file until his fee has been
discharged and you need to be aware then if you enter into a relationship with a
solicitor or instruct a solicitor in employment matter or in litigation or
need anything else and the solicitor can hold on to finally speed so you do need
to be careful about falling out or having disputes and that sort of thing
you really do need to be clear at the outset as to what the agreed see is or
at least the method by which the fee it's gonna be calculated and so on
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