Take your Solicitor (Abogado) to court.

Hi Campana,

I suggest your highly relevant due diligence checklist would be "LOST" on some people here.

In any case, the point has been clearly missed (including the moronic reference to a "league table" !!!!) - which is why I have respectfully opted out of this thread.

Cheers,

Jon

It's like pulling teeth trying to get any info here. So, it appears I have missed something that may answer the questions I have been asking about how to identify a good, honest, competent lawyer, with a site that moves as fast as EOS it happens sometimes. Perhaps it would have been more helpful to just point me in the right direction in the first place. As Jon07 has now respectfully opted out of this thread could someone else could tell me where this due diligence checklist is please?

Poppyseed

yes, let's have a list of good lawyers then from Jon07 and Campana. You clearly know a few who I'm sure would be glad of positive feedback on here. Who wouldn't?. That would be far more useful than blaming the victims of the bad ones, and it would also show a caring side that it has to be said is often missing from your posts.

How about it you two, are you up to the challenge?.

no list yet then?. 

must be because it's such a long list it's taking a long while to compile .

Yes, the silence is deafening. I would really appreciate seeing the due diligence check list but haven't a clue where it is hiding.

One solicitor that has acted very well for my clients and I have recommended over the years for a number of issues is Maria Jesus Zaragoza Perez, She is based in San Miguel de Salinas in Alicante. You can look her up in Google for the contact details. She seems to be cheep and does her job well.

It is a shame that solicitors can represent both parties in the sale of a property. They are not alowed to represent both parties in the case of court preceedings.

One really doesn't wonder any more why people stop posting on EOS - just look at how some can be so acerbic towards others!

Due diligence - do your homework!  What would you do if, never having employed a solicitor before, you wished to employ one in the UK, France, Italy, UAE, Afghanistan, Outer Mongolia????????  If you did not personally know anybody in the area you were searcing for legal representation you could always start with Google!!  From there you could possibly find many forums, etc., where you would find personal recommendations, information, warnings, blah blah blah!!  Or you could just ask people in that area!!!

It really doesn't take a rocket scientist!!!!  And no the silence is not deafening, it's just exhausted!!

Patrick

Great stuff!.  That's the sort of info that really helps.

And of course, all the info in here may help also for those who wish to actually look for it!!  And, as it happens, in many other threads on EOS and many other websites!!  Maybe even those websites local to where people are actually searching for advice .......

Dear All,

I have said many times that if only I had known of EOS before trusting our young English solicitor to behave in the manner I would describe as the norm for any country in the EU.

But of course I did not and perhaps I did not do much research except to check the area and site and not to anticipate gross dishonesty, but there again I only wanted an apartment on a holiday complex - not to emigrate.

As to EOS it's help would have come from the distress threads, not the happy threads, indeed as I understand it the moronic idiot imbecile victims (from the chartered silly) include the founder himself, who is on record as saying he was shafted by his developer.

His "crime" is of course far greater than mine since he fully intended to resettle his whole family.

So there we have it Justin where was your due diligence??????????

Regards

Norman

That's a good point about help from the distress threads.  Those cheated are often accused of being 'doom mongers',  but if anyone is looking for info' that's not only helpful but could save them a fortune and years of stress and worry, then posts expressing personal experience of fraud, corruption, lack of regulation etc, are by far the most valuble.  Though the happy threads have their place for balance, and Patricks recent balanced posts are a good example,  you can read about the positive side of buying in Spain in any glossy brochure or agents office!!,  not so the often grim reality.

I think the main point for new buyers to understand is that those bodies of legal trust who we mostly take for granted work with integrity in the UK like lawyers, banks, judges, courts, planning officers etc , can very often not be trusted in the same way in Spain.  Many of them should be treated more like 2nd hand car salesmen and estate agents sadly, despite their positions of legal trust.  It is still a lottery.

 If thats what people really think about Spain why on earth move here

 Yes, a list of good experiences with good lawyers will be a great piece of information. As I have said in man occassions, I can testify there are hundreds of good lawyers in Spain. Not many speaking english though... but there are!

SMYTHIE

......because it's a fantastic country in many ways of course. I think very few would want Spain to be like the UK, and when comparisons are made to property purchase in the UK,  I think the comparisons could be to any country that has a legal system that can be trusted with integrity as a minimum requirement. 

maria

yes, the good lawyers are there.  It's just a shame they don't do more to weed out the bad one's by naming and shaming them and doing everyone a favour!.  Buyers should be able to trust all lawyers in a decent society as they should be able to trust judges, banks, planning etc.  Anything else is just wrong.

TRUE VERSION OF EVENTS

You go to the Spanish law society (Malaga) with proof a Spanish lawyer (based in Marbella) has stolen a sizeable 5 figure sum from his client and all they do is smile at  you and say it's not really their place to get involved and ok they will open a file and we will go through the motions (takes 6 to 12 months and that's with chasing every other week) and maybe at best they will tell him he should really consider giving back the money .... but if he does not they don't really mind ...... but they will never strike this lawyer off or place a restriction on his practising certicate. WHY - in their opinion he has not really done anything wrong and if some English person is stupid enough to leave money with his lawyer then what do you expect!

I had not intended commenting on this thread before because I thought it was a waste of time but today I will share my opinions with you.

Mostly you will waste your time complaining to the Spanish law societies.

As for taking Spanish lawyers to court you will need a law degree and membership of a law society because 99% of Spanish lawyers will refuse to represent you - so you will have to do it yourself!

But by all means keep talking amongst yourselves and agreeing what should happen - BUT IT NEVER WILL

I wonder sometimes if people on this forum ever really speak to Spanish people becuase as far as most are concerned you can all pack up and go home becuase this is their country and they will do exactly what they want and have always done.

With a glass or two of wine and the sun high in the sky I'm sure I will see things differently.

Faro

RE:  the wine,...... I doubt you will see things differently, it just won't seem quite as important .

You confirm my fears sadly.

Thank you Faro,

the wine will not change the facts unfortunately.

well Goodstitch, where is you Spanish lawyer that you praised so highly, lawbird wasn't it, will he sue his colleagues???????

he is keen to denounce Maria for "ambulance chasing" but will he break the syndicate????

and of course what of Maria?, she has a law professor in her armoury but seeks only to pursue the developers, who I have never thought were the main criminals, will she or her numbers of honest Spanish lawyer colleagues ever pursue the real criminals?????

who has the answers?

Regards

Norman

Even those so called ambulance chasers or scavenger lawyers do not advertise negligence claims against other lawyers and all lawyers have minimum PI cover through their colegio/law society - so why no claims?

Colegio de abogados de Malaga have cover under a Caser Suguros policy but probably a better chance of winning the lottery than making a successful claim.

There are a few lawyers who might be willing to take on a case of theft of money but very few who would take on a case and say their colleague was negligent or did a bad job etc and certainly not in the same town.

I was at a court case/hearing before the summer where lawyes for both sides sat outside together talking/joking and then went into the hearing did their little act and came out we all shook hands and said goodbye. It was some kind or pre-hearing so no clients just lawyers and procuradors etc. I even sat in myself to watch the show and the lawyers put on gowns and it all looked quite official. It was a case for the return of a deposit ........ buyer not wanting to complete .... developer in receivorship ...... the lawyers all seemed happy enough though.........

I think it's been established that ensuring you have found 'a good lawyer' is pretty much a lottery. I haven't seen anything that tells me how this can be done. The link to the lawyers forum mainly consists of the failings and need for reform, the list of lawyers obtained from google doesn't weed out the good from the bad and if local forums elicit some of the responses I have had to a simple question who would want to go there? Personally I would only accept a recommendation from a known and trusted source and Norman's derided comment about a league table gets Maria's support.

So next time someone blithely suggests you 'find a good lawyer' remember it's not that easy, they are out there but not necessarily easily identified, and although people claim to know good lawyers they seem very coy is sharing who they are. So I end my quest in trying to find out how to identify 'a good lawyer'.

One of the big problems in Spain is that all lawyers are trying to dabble in property sales and receive a commission and at the same time claim to be independent.