Any lawyers around? Is there any comeback if a lawyer has lost your will?

[PattiMayor]

My very elderly gran made a will years ago which she lodged with a local solicitor. Said solicitor has retired and another firm has taken over the practice.

She has a copy of her will but the new firm say that they can't find the original and she needs it apparently as no one will accept a copy.

So now my dad has had to get another solicitor out to see my gran (she is in a home) to make a new will which is effectively a copy of the old one.

Obviously this is going to cost money which she doesn't have a lot of. Is there any comeback via the Law Society or anything? It seems a bit rubbish to me that a solicitor can retire and all their paperwork go missing and there's no recourse.

[PattiMayor]

Thanks nappy. The new firm are making out that they're not anything to do with the retired solicitor though - they're telling my dad that they took over the premises and that's all.

I will try the Solicitors Regulation Authority although I suspect my dad may feel it's easier just to pay up rather than go through a load more hoops - as you can imagine, this has been a bit of a bloody pita already.

[PattiMayor]

Thanks so much for your help, nappy, didn't have a clue where to start :)

Have had a look at the website now. My dad has all the details, I don't, but I've forwarded him their contact details and it seems from what is on their site that they might be able to track down the original will.

I am cross at the other firm for being so bloody unhelpful though - my dad is nearly 80 (my gran really is very old indeed!) so he finds this sort of thing really hard work as you can imagine.