I am raising funds for my friend’s legal bill. The bill is in dispute, it contains unlawful charges and her solicitors are threatening to take her to court if she does not pay this bill by 15th June. She is disputing the bill as the solicitors have charged her for reasonable adjustments for her disability. It is unlawful to charge for reasonable adjustments under The Equality Act 2010. The irony is the solicitors were employed to represent her in a case that centres on unlawful discrimination against her due to her disabilities.

The solicitors have not responded to her dispute beyond a letter containing contradictions and spelling mistakes (including her name). It is full of jargon which she is struggling to comprehend and threatens court. It is an intimidatory tactic used against a woman that they know is exceptionally vulnerable.

Before she signed the contract, the solicitors said they understood disability discrimination and her legal issues. Once the contract was signed, it became apparent that they had little knowledge of disability discrimination and the laws surrounding it.

● They were constantly deferring to me and my friend for our knowledge on equality matters.

● They delivered little, missed deadlines, and went AWOL for weeks on end.

● They did not give requested reasonable adjustments.

● It appears that they did not fully read the information my friend gave them to support her case. 100 hours of her collating documents and evidence, they “read” the information in 8 hours and never seemed to understand her case.

● They needed to be chased frequently via email and billed her for chasing their tardiness.

● The lead solicitor requested that my friend write her own responses to the opposition, and they would “legal-ify” it. They offered her no case or legal advice about the letters they wanted her to write, even when she had clearly said she had no idea what was going on in the case and did not understand it.

Utterly traumatised and unsupported by them, she felt she had no choice but to do the work she hired the solicitors to do. Work that she was not well enough to do, qualified to do, that she did not understand and that distressed her further. Then they charged her for her doing their work, taking advantage of her vulnerability.

She needed a solicitor to protect her from discrimination, not further abuse her and discriminate against her. They perpetuated the cycle of abuse that she had gone to them to help stop.

She contacted the complaints manager at the firm for advice about what to do, having had no luck informally flagging her concerns. The response was that her requests for reasonable adjustments under The Equality Act 2010 were “not sustainable.” They threatened to drop her as a client, then backtracked and said if she paid their invoice (full of unlawful charges) that they would continue to act. Put simply, the complaints manager said my friend’s needs due to disability were unacceptable, discriminated against her, intimidated her, and victimised her. All of which is unlawful under The Equality Act.

How can a solicitor claim to know disability legislation and simultaneously breach it? My friend feels like her right to call their practices into account has been removed, leaving her with no voice with her own solicitor.

My friend’s case has been referred to, and accepted by, the Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority, who were disgusted with the brief details they have been told. The case is in the process of being referred to the Legal Ombudsman. These processes are slow and may take many months. It will not be quick enough to stop the solicitors from starting costly and unethical court proceedings against my friend.

She is extremely unwell due to increased stress and pressure on top of severely debilitating disabilities and the original matter she went to the solicitor for help with. She is currently under a Safeguarding referral (which her solicitors knew) and is in contact with the Police due to ongoing harassment from other people.

If we can reach the initial goal to prevent court action, we will increase the goal to fund securing a new solicitor, someone that specialises in disability, has a proven track record in this area, and knows how to make reasonable adjustments and that it is unlawful to charge for them.

Please donate if you can or share if you cannot donate. Everything helps. Thank you for reading.