Sorry seems to be the hardest word…

In the words of Sir Elton John (or his writers, I do not really know) sorry seems to be the hardest word.

We have just settled a case where we brought proceedings against a Senior Solicitor who is a Law Society Council Member, an Employment Specialist and Partner in a firm who stuffed up (not a legal term,) a client’s case.

Our client coincidentally also worked as a lawyer and was, she argued, unfairly dismissed. She instructed a leading Southport firm to protect her interests. They in turn relieved her of £1000 for the privilege of investigating the case and then omitted to issue the Industrial Tribunal Claim Form in a timely fashion. “What do I do when lightning strikes me?” must have asked our client following this double misfortune.

What I got to do to make you care?

I would have thought the firm involved would say sorry, but for many lawyers that seems to be the hardest word, so there was no apology. Instead, what they suggested was that the client should run her case, and run it on to a preliminary hearing to determine whether or not her claim could be pursued in any event. The problem with this was that the firm had missed a limitation period, a legal deadline, and in these cases unless there are truly exceptional circumstances this is an almost impossible hurdle to overcome.

It’s sad, so sad, it’s a sad sad situation…

Could anyone sensibly run such an argument in such circumstances? My advice to a law firm in this position is that you are in a hole, stop digging! It is time to say sorry, this is pointless, and let me sort out the mistake. In this case our Southport firm insisted that the client ought to pay further funds and run the point. Our client was at risk of throwing good money after bad and paying the costs of pursuing her case to a futile hearing at which the claim was ultimately lost and thrown out. However by this point we had been instructed to review matters and ensured that she in fact paid nothing further.

And it’s getting more and more absurd…

We put the facts of their mistake to the Southport firm. However, notwithstanding that the solicitor still would not say sorry and put matters right. We therefore had to pursue a claim for professional negligence against this Law Society council member wondering at the same time “what I got to do to be heard?”, again assuming that they would apologise.  Instead, this prominent firm instructed their own lawyers, a barrister and their legally qualified insurers to investigate the case and at the conclusion of that they still did not apologise, worse yet, they denied liability.

Why can’t we talk it over?

Our client remained in her sad sad situation. We had to issue proceedings and again a full Defence (eventually) was filed which, again, offered no apology and denied liability. We asked the Defendants to negotiate or to discuss the claim with us. We asked, as Elton would say, “why can’t we talk it over?” but again they would not do that. Thankfully however, they did eventually realise that the game was up and finally considered what they had to do when it was all over.

They offered our client some compensation and eventually the case was settled for £22,500 plus costs (and a request for confidentiality!).

What do I got to do? What do I got to do?

I think that there are lessons to be learned from this case, the first lesson is a simple one that everyone makes mistakes from time to time, even (maybe especially) lawyers.

The second one is that when we do make mistakes that we ought to say sorry (we do not have to be Elton John fans to appreciate the merits of saying sorry).

The third lesson is that if we truly want to address the errors that we have made, the best way of doing so is not to be defensive but to work together to try and draw a line under matters. In this case, when the Defendants finally did accept that it was all over the matter was resolved in less than a week.

The entire process however, had taken over 18 months.  Did our client finally get her apology? Sadly not, and oh it seems to me that for this Southport firm sorry still seems to be the hardest word!

Tim Ryan
Partner, Irvings Law