Professional Negligence

All I wanted was a divorce from a violent man whose life I helped to save...

...but because my solicitor, Ron Thomas of R T Law solicitors, was incompetent I ended up homeless and in considerable debt after having been a businesswoman for 17 years.

In 2005, having successfully fought the NHS for 16 months to secure a life saving operation for my husband, I sought a divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour after my husband subjected me to domestic violence despite my efforts to save his life after he was diagnosed inoperable and terminally ill by a knighted professor in 2003. He was given 1-2 years to live.

Having endured years of domestic violence and being diagnosed as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, my solicitor took the opportunity to ridicule me, insult me and, ultimately, bleed me dry. The way he did this was to not admit that my case was too complicated for him or to suggest I find a more competent solicitor but, instead, he plodded on not having a clue what he was doing with the financial aspects of the case. The proof of this is that despite many court hearings, he eventually failed to submit my complete financial evidence into Court so that the Judge could see that my former husband was, in fact, stealing from my bank accounts. All that was required was proof of the destination of the fraudulent transactions - something a competent solicitor should have known would be required.

Throughout the duration of my divorce case Ron Thomas told me that I was entitled to 50% share of the marital assets because of my contribution towards the marriage. I had renovated one of the marital homes and saved my husband from impending death. My former husband has survived his 'inoperable condition' for 4 years now. Once he recovered from his life-saving operation he emptied the bank accounts and went to live with another woman, such was his gratitude.

Mr Thomas told me he'd had many years' experience of domestic violence that my abusive husband was a "pussycat" because "his violence wasn't on the worst end of the scale". By that, I assume because he didn't manage to kill me, despite his efforts to do so. I wrote a book about my experience with the NHS and Ron Thomas described it as "diatribe" even though he said he'd never read it. The book was written with the help of 2 professional authors/editors and to insult me is to insult them.

Ron Thomas told me the divorce would cost me in the region of £1,000 and would take around 6 months to complete. In fact it cost £14,000 and took 2 years. The end result was that his professional negligence cost me my home and my livelihood.

I attended the Final Court Hearing with a domestic violence officer from the local police station. Ron Thomas didn't bother to attend at all, instead choosing to send his daughter to take notes. Had he bothered to attend, it would have been apparent that vital financial evidence was missing and he could have asked for an adjournment. My Barrister, Matthew Haynes of St Ive's Chambers in Birmingham, actually sent my husband home to get some more of his financial evidence but, of course, he wasn't going to produce anything that would benefit me and told the Court he had disposed of it. It should have been me who was asked to produced that evidence in any event. My solicitor, and my Barrister, should have known that evidence would be required and they should have ensured it was all present and correct for the Final Court Hearing. Both Mr Haynes and Mr Thomas got paid in full for not doing their job.

The Judge summed up that I was a 'provoker of violence', despite me having hospital and doctor's records and police incident reports which proved I was the one on the receiving end of domestic violence and my husband had no evidence whatsoever of violence from me. The Judge concluded that I was dishonest with my finances, thanks to the incompetence of my solicitor - I had given my solicitor every shred of financial evidence I was asked for, except the evidence he failed to ask me for - the very evidence that was required in Court. My husband's barrister referred to me as a "gold digger", despite my money having been used to renovate the marital home and that my husband stole from me. The Judge ordered that I transfer one house to my husband in its entirety and that the house I was living in was to be sold so that my husband could live debt free.

The Court Hearing was a humiliating and horrible experience that should not have happened had the necessary evidence been produced. I had also been told there would be a 2 hour pre-trial conference with my barrister, to discuss the contents of the Trial Bundle, but that never happened either. Because I hadn't been allowed to see the Trial Bundle, even though my husband had seen it, I had no idea what was in there or where to look when being questioned.

At the end, the Judge told my husband that he hoped he was now well and that he would enjoy a prolonged life. To me, this felt as though the Judge was giving my husband a pat on the back for his crimes whilst clearly punishing me. The Judge said, "You do not deserve any special consideration for your part in saving your husbands' life."

To literally add insult to injury, Mr Thomas's daughter's parting shot to me was "next time find yourself a rich husband".

I wrote a very serious and lengthy 17 page letter of complaint to R T Law Solicitors and Ron Thomas's response was full of lies and avoidance, in fact he turned it all around and blamed me. I then involved the Law Society who dismissed the complaint but the Law Ombudsman ordered that they re-investigate. The Law Society, after almost a year of investigation, decided they could only act on poor service and not professional negligence. The Law Ombudsman suggested I sue Ron Thomas for Professional Negligence but as I am in debt I could not afford to take further legal action - even if I could find a solicitor who would sue another solicitor as they all close ranks and protect each other.

The only aspect of my complaint the Law Society upheld was poor service regarding my divorce papers, which kept being returned from the Court for amendment, and Ron Thomas was ordered to refund my court fees for that. I had also given the Law Society a copy of a document that had been submitted into Court where Mr Thomas had forged my signature - the response of the Law Society? "I'm not a handwriting expert".

At the end of all the Court Hearings, two years later, I was still not even divorced and had to enlist the help of my husband's solicitor!

I have published links with proof to this complaint on this site

http://rtlawsolicitors.blogspot.com/2008/07/all-i-wanted-was-divorce-from-violent.html