Complaint to OLSC about barrister Michelle Campbell: Difference between revisions

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(Created page with "This is a complaint to the Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner about barrister Michelle Campbell. Complaint has 9 steps, so I go one by one. Some information is hidden to protect privacy of involved people. ==Before lodging a Complaint== The recommendation to read about OLSC or contact them. ==Authority to Represent== ''Are you representing someone else'': no. ==Complainant Details== My...")
 
 
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This is a complaint to the [[Writing a complaint to Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner|Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner]] about barrister Michelle Campbell. Complaint has 9 steps, so I go one by one. Some information is hidden to protect privacy of involved people.
This is a complaint to the [[Writing a complaint to Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner|Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner]] about barrister Michelle Campbell. Complaint has 9 steps, so I go one by one. Some information is hidden to protect privacy of involved people.
==Before lodging a Complaint==
The recommendation to read about OLSC or contact them.
==Authority to Represent==
''Are you representing someone else'': no.
==Complainant Details==
My contact details.
==Lawyer Details==
Allows you to search for lawyer by name or firm.
''Select lawyer type'': solicitor.
==Lawyer Contact Details==
Lawyers contact details. I also had a look at [https://www.lawsociety.com.au/register-of-solicitors register of solicitors], when I was not sure about the address.


==Complaint Details==
==Complaint Details==
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''' ''If yes, how? If not, why not?'' '''
''' ''If yes, how? If not, why not?'' '''


Note: an electronic form may lose text formatting, so I add the same information in a separate document as an attachment together with detailed info named “2023-10-29 Complaint to OLSC about solicitor Moya de Luca-Leonard.pdf”.
Note: an electronic form may lose text formatting, so I add the same information in a separate document as an attachment together with detailed info named “2023-10-29 Complaint to OLSC about barrister Michelle Campbell.pdf”.
 
Michelle Campbell provided counseling for solicitor Moya de Luca-Leonard. I have not contacted her directly only through Ms. Leonard. There is a tripartite agreement to have costs agreed or assessed, but Moya de Luca-Leonard is providing incorrect information that her costs have been accepted. On 2023-10-24 I sent an email to Ms. Leonard offering to pay her and Ms. Campbell reasonable fees, but Moya has not replied to it yet.


There is tripartite agreement to have costs agreed or assessed, but Moya de Luca-Leonard is providing false information that her costs have been accepted. On 2023-10-24 I sent an email to Moya offering to pay her reasonable fees, but she has not replied to it yet. For detailed information please have a look at detailed complaint info: [[#Moya lied that I excepted her fees|Moya lied that I excepted her fees]].
If I understand correctly, the bill is not payable as the contract with Ms. Leonard. The bill becomes payable only after money is received from insurance. Same applies to Michelle bill. I have PTSD from the road traffic injury, and they represented me on a personal injury claim for this injury. It makes it very difficult for me to deal with anything related to the injury and I misunderstood the deadlines in the past. To avoid a similar situation, I am submitting a complaint while in my understanding there is still room for negotiations.


''' ''Please provide a summary of your complaint and include the following details:'' '''
''' ''Please provide a summary of your complaint and include the following details:'' '''
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* ''' ''What are your concerns?'' '''
* ''' ''What are your concerns?'' '''


Complete description of complaint does not fit in these fields and text formatting may be lost. So, I provide in the attachment "Details of Complaint about solicitor Moya de Luca-Leonard.pdf".
I came to Ms. Leonard in June 2020 to help me with my personal injury claim after a road traffic injury on 2015-03-30. I have been with a previous personal injury firm named Law Partners. Ms. Leonard promised to deal with exorbitant costs from Law Partners and to significantly improve my claim. Ms. Leonard included Ms. Campbell for counseling, but I am not sure what was the role of Ms. Campbell. I have met her only once at a zoom meeting that lasted about 40 minutes. She has prepared an update for my statement. However, I could have done it myself and maybe even more accurately if given instructions on what has to be included in the statement. Ms. Campbell wrote one piece of advice about the settlement proposal after I told Ms. Leonard that I am not interested in settling and I would like to have my claim assessed by an independent assessor. I had previously had a terrible experience with useless (felt like fake) settlement negotiations and did not want to get involved with it again. I was shocked when I got Michelle's invoice for $13,090. I do not know where it comes from. To make it worse I think her advice about settling was negligent. It seems she did not look at my case properly. The advice did not take into account my qualification, work before the injury (on my own project) or later attempts to come back to work.  
 
I came to Moya in June 2020 to help me with my personal injury claim after a road traffic injury in 2015-03-30. I have been scammed by a personal injury firm named Law Partners. Moya promised to deal with exorbitant costs from Law Partners and to significantly improve my claim. Starting by dismissing a deeply fraudulent report from insurer (QBE) hired psychologist Vanitha Moodley and getting my PTSD recognized.
 
At first, she did OK as she had submitted to SIRA (now PIC) documents related to PTSD. Something Law Partners have not done at all, but I find out about it only later. PTSD was recognized by the PIC assessor. However, after this it seems her work quality dropped significantly.
 
Moya told me not to worry about the Vanitha report and Law Partners fees. However, time passed, and she did nothing about it. Because of this some deadlines to deal with Law Partners fees in a simpler way have passed. Now, I am not sure if I will be able to do anything about it.
 
The consequences for not dismissing the Vanitha report were terrible. That report could have been easily dismissed as it has an enormous list of absurd factual errors (I counted 146) that would require a teleportation device, time travel, is completely insistent and so on. I cannot believe how the solicitor can be this negligent or even worse intentionally did not want to dispute it. Unfortunately, the PIC medical assessment panel took this into account and my chances to get anything more than a so-called buffer ($100,000) for the loss of income became minuscule. I have no income since the injury and future looks very grim. Before the injury I was a highly skilled software developer with a PhD in computer science.
 
Moya grossly exaggerated her fees. She estimated the cost of the work starting of $15,000 up to $45,000 for all tasks but done only fraction of it and exaggerated significantly the amount of the other activities, while large part of them where not even needed. It is like Moya worked only till got some useful result and then focused on exaggerating her fees while being very negligent towards my case.
 
Moya also provided some wrong information and put psychological pleasure to take actions that were not in my interests. The most painful of them lies that claim for damage on my bicycle is covered by CTP claim and that I have to drop my claim in small claims court. While financially it is not by far as significant as CTP claim it was very emotionally important for me as that was the only way for to get some accountability from the driver. Moya was fully aware of this, but still manipulated me to drop small courts claim by telling me that by law it has to be included in the claim she is managing.


At the end instead of attempting to fix her errors, negligence or intentional failures she blamed first others, then corruption and resigned. This put me in very difficult situation which unfortunately I was not able to fix and ended up getting much lower compensation than expected and not being able to proceed to court to fix it.
Ms. Campbell ignored information about errors in Ceballos (QBE solicitor) statements and a report provided by insurer QBE written by psychologist Vanitha Moodley (these two have a lot of similarities). The consequences for not dismissing this incorrect information were terrible. It could have been easily dismissed as it has an enormous list of absurd factual errors. For Moodley's report I counted 146; it would require a teleportation device, time travel, it is completely inconsistent and so on. I cannot believe how lawyers can be this negligent or even worse intentionally did not want to dispute it. QBE used this report to complain about medical assessment and ask for review. Ms. Campbell should have prepared arguments to dismiss Moodley report and Ceballos arguments if Ms. Campbell did at least a small part of the work she claims to have done. Unfortunately it was not done and review was granted. I believe the PIC medical assessment panel took some of this incorrect information into account and my chances to get anything more than a so-called buffer ($100,000) for the loss of income became minuscule. I have no income since the injury and future looks very grim. Before the injury I was a highly skilled software developer with a PhD in computer science.  


Ms. Campbell grossly exaggerated her fees. I was informed about Ms. Campbell work by Ms. Leonard and it seems way less than claimed by Ms. Campbell. At some point Ms. Leonard informed me that Ms. Campbell retired from work and can not represent me. However, I still see her in the list of barristers. It may have been just a way to apply psychological pressure on me to settle without independent assessment to avoid extra fees for introducing a new barrister.


I believe there is negligence in her work and legal fees are exaggerated.


''' ''How do you want us to help you to resolve your complaint?'' '''
''' ''How do you want us to help you to resolve your complaint?'' '''
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''Please note: One of our officers may contact you to discuss what we can and we cannot do ''
''Please note: One of our officers may contact you to discuss what we can and we cannot do ''


# Check if Moya voided contract by resigning, negligence or providing incorrect information. If so, make contract void.
# Her bill is grossly exaggerated, please help me to reduce it to reasonable sum
# If contract is still void her bill is grossly exaggerated, please help me to reduce it to reasonable sum
# I have not signed agreement with Ms. Campbell and I believe regulated costs should be applied when all actions taken into account
# I believe some of her actions unprofessional and at least negligent. I hope you will take an appropriate action.
# By removing herself from claim without any reason given her fees should be affected too as to get barrister representation for independent assessment there will be need for extra work
# I believe some of her actions unprofessional and at least negligent. I believe this should reduce her fees. I hope you will take an appropriate action.


''' ''What area of legal service does this complaint arise from?'' '''
''' ''What area of legal service does this complaint arise from?'' '''
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''' ''Notes'' '''
''' ''Notes'' '''


I am trying to describe everything as accurately as I can. Unfortunately many of these memories cause high levels of stress. It quickly triggers PTSD response and shuts down my ability to think. Often I have to take a long break or can continue only the next day. I do not know if I need to describe every event when I believe Moya Leonard acted unfairly in her own interests. I came to Moya asking help with scamming lawyers from Law Partners firm (Gillian Potts and Ken Pryde), instead I learned that all lawyers focus on inflating fees rather than your claim. She failed to include important information and lied about other things. This is the second time I am writing a complaint about a lawyer, but previous one has not been processed yet and also due to my illness I may be missing important bits. If there is more information required please let me know. Previously I tried to fit everything into 1 application with 10 attachments. This meant that I had to merge many documents and I think it is not a good idea. I realized that you probably handle everything in electronic form and it would be much easier if every document is separate file. So, I will attach the ones that I think are more important and send others later. This also makes it difficult to describe everything in details. So, I hope the best way is to provide here brief description of what happened and what I am complaining about and then provide more detail information about specifics with attached evidences.
I have submitted complaint about solicitor Moya de Luca-Leonard who hired Ms. Campbell to provide counselling, because of this some information is duplicated. Complaint number for Ms Leonard is CAS014655.
 
There were also other problems related to PTSD as some memories got blocked and I risk missing some important information while writing complaint, but it might come back later. Also when stressed I may not express my self very clearly, partially it is due to the fact that then I think in Lithuanian and may lose some meaning in translation. However, I do my best to be precise and I try to present facts first (actually I have many of them running in my mind, just struggling to put them in writing in clear way).
 
I also do not know what to do with some attachments. For example there were some documents that were dozens of pages, but the information that I need is only on one page. I try to upload all files I will reach file size limit, but if I take only one page from document it might looks suspicious. I hope to ask about this the person who will be assigned to assess my complaint.


Before I got PTSD myself I never imagined how debilitating it is. It is hard to describe it and I would need to be telling it for a very long time, but I will try to provide information about it in a separate document.  
===Background===
I was cycling in Sydney when a car from oncoming traffic made a right turn straight into me on 2015-03-30. I was sure I was going to die when I saw a car accelerating towards me. I survived, but among other things the fear stayed. Since then, I am struggling with PTSD.  


===Before contacting Moya de Luca-Leonard===
I was frustrated with the way QBE (drivers insurance company) was managing the claim, so I initially contacted Law Partners to represent me. However, I was unhappy with their
I was cycling in Sydney when a car from oncoming traffic made a right turn straight into me on 2015-03-30. I was sure I am going to die when I saw car accelerating towards me. I survived, but among other things the fear stayed. Since then I am struggling with PTSD.
representation. I feel that they did not collect or submit important information about my health problems. At the end of April 2020, I got a report by Vanitha Moodley (a psychologist hired by QBE solicitors) that had a large number of absurd errors.


QBE (drivers insurance company) did not pay for any treatment and was giving empty promises so I asked Gillian Potts from Law Partners (personal injury law firm) to represent me. However, it went terribly wrong. They did not collected or submitted some important information about my health problems caused by road traffic injury.
Due to concerns about Law Partners’ advice about this report, I contacted one solicitor whom I knew. He recommended to me Ms Leonard, who helped him in the past with one client who had a personal injury claim, as he worked in a different area of law. This is how I ended up with Ms Leonard.
At the end of April 2020 I got a report by Vanitha Mooldey (psychologist hired by QBE solicitors) that had an enormous amount of absurd errors. Law Partners pushed me to accept this report saying that there is nothing I can do and because of this report my claim is damaged and I need to accept whatever QBE is offering. I have contacted one solicitor whom I knew, even if he works in a different field, asking for help. He recommended to me Moya, who helped him in the past with one client who had a personal injury claim. This is how I ended up with Moya.


===Reasons to start working with Moya===
Ms Leonard received information that set out my concerns, which were:
Before meeting Moya, I forwarded all information to the solicitor who recommended her and he forwarded everything to Moya. I have identified the following problems:
<ol style="list-style-type:lower-alpha">
# Deeply fraudulent Moodley report
  <li>Issues with Moodley’s report;</li>
# Exaggerated Law Partners fees
  <li>Law Partners fees being exaggerated and well above what had been quoted;</li>
# PTSD not being recognized
  <li>PTSD had not been recognized, and;</li>
# Refusal to go for an independent assessment and court if required
  <li>Law Partners’ unwillingness to go to independent assessment or court.</li>
</ol>


I asked Moya (first indirectly, but later directly) if she can help with these problems, before signing the contract with her. These were the promises I got from Moya:
Ms Leonard made me promises before I signed the costs agreement with her. These were the
promises I got from Ms Leonard:
# Moodley report is not a big problem. She deals with reports like these all the time and she will have it dismissed easily (will not affect independent assessment).
# Moodley report is not a big problem. She deals with reports like these all the time and she will have it dismissed easily (will not affect independent assessment).
# She has dealt with exaggerated legal fees in the past and has gone to court against other solicitors. She knows what she is doing. She will deal with it.
# She has dealt with exaggerated legal fees in the past and has gone to court against other solicitors. She knows what she is doing. She will deal with it.
# PTSD is classified as physical injury, not as mental one, because it causes long lasting changes in the brain. I can apply for it to be assessed. Law Partners lied to me that there is nothing that can be done.
# PTSD is classified as physical injury, not as mental one, because it causes long lasting changes in the brain. I can apply for it to be assessed. Law Partners misinformed me that there is nothing that can be done.
# She will bring my claim to independent assessment or court if necessary and she is sure that I will have a much better financial outcome compared to what I can get now with Law Partners' offer. She said that my claim is relatively simple, but we need to move quickly in order to fix it.
# She will bring my claim to independent assessment or court if necessary and she is sure that I will have a much better financial outcome compared to what I can get now with Law Partners&#39; offer. She said that my claim is relatively simple, but we need to move quickly in order to fix it.
 
===Problems dealing with Moya===
====Lied about the purpose of government listed legal costs====
At the first meeting with Moya she told me that there is a list of legal fees at the official site for personal injuries. However, these prices are absurdly low and no one is using them. She told me that this is bureaucratic left over from a long time ago. I was wondering why they keep it, but I have seen lots of leftover information on various sites. Only a few years later I have learned that this is important information, that for many claims this is the fees solicitors work for and that it is used for getting back legal fees from insurance companies. If she explained it to me properly I would look for the solicitor who would take my claim based on these fees. I also was told that I would get legal fees back if my claim is successful if I knew that I would get only this part I would know about the importance of keeping track of it.
 
====Misinformed that PTSD is treated as physical injury====
At the beginning Moya informed me that PTSD is classified as physical injury and therefore it will be a different assessment than the mental health impact that I have been assessed for and did not pass the threshold. Again only a few years later I learned that is not true. I do not yet fully understand the reasoning lying about it and fully possible consequences. I know that if in time I will find out that I am not able to recover as well as I expected I will no longer be able to ask for further assessment of damages.
 
As far I know this would not be a reason to complain about her, but it just keeps wondering what else I was misinformed about.
 
====False promise to deal with Law Partners fees====
Moya told me that I should not do anything about Law Partners legal fees, she will take care of it. Year later, in September 2011, she told me that she is not an expert in this area, but she will take care of it. In October 2022 she told me that the best solution is to go to court. I tried to find out more about exaggerated legal fees and find out that there is Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner (OLSC) that can help. Moya was strongly against it. She also told me that I cannot apply for cost assessments at supreme court because I missed the deadline and even if I apply, they cannot help me. If Moya did not lie me about it, I would have looked for solution and would have taken appropriate action. I have submitted now complaints about Law Partners at OLSC (one for solicitor Gillian Potts and one for barrister Ken Pryde). However, I missed the deadlines and it is unclear will I get any result, but but I will need for other ways to deal with their legal fees. I also was out of time and could not prepare complaints properly especially the one about Pryde. I appealed for time extension, but there is very little chance that I will get it. Just for going to Moya Law partners increased fees about $70,000. Law Partners fees could be potentially dismissed all together or significantly reduced if not the empty promises by Moya. This fake promise and dragging of time almost certainly costed me at lease $100,000 or maybe more. It also reduced my chances of getting justice and put me through not necessary suffering.
 
However, Moya must have know about this as when recently I looked for her appearance in court it was a complaint for cost assessment about her exaggerated.
 
====Lies that small courts claim is same as insurance claim====
One of the biggest injustices in my life is that the driver who hit me got away without any consequences. Police simply did not do their job. There were witnesses and most likely some hard evidence. However, evidence was not checked and collected at the time and witness statements ignored. I tried to fix it but was not able to. I was left with only one option: to go to small claims court against the driver for the damage on the bicycle. It was exceptionally important emotionally for me. It felt like it was the thing that could make me feel safe again. When I met Moya for the first time I asked about damage to the bicycle, even though I was told that it is a separate matter by other solicitors previously, just in case Moya can help with it too. However, she told me that she does not deal with it. I knew I couldn't deal with a few things at the time, so I was hoping that after I am done with the insurance claim I can focus on the case against the driver. However, the insurance claim was taking much longer than expected or I was told, and I had to deal with a case against the driver. It is meant to be simple and there is not even legal representation in these matters, but I was struggling big time. After a few months of struggles I contacted Redfern Legal Center (RLC). They gave me simple step by step instructions and I was able to submit documents to the small claims court on time. All that was left was to deliver court documents to the driver. I was waiting for some documents from the police and when I got them COVID restrictions were introduced. I had enough time, but restrictions were extended and when they were finally lifted I had about a month to deliver documents. I went to the driver's address and found out that he had moved. I had few ideas how I could look for him but decided to ask Moya to help to locate him. At first, she asked me to wait for a few days. I thought that she was looking for a new address. However, she told me that I cannot proceed with a claim against the driver. That I was misinformed by other solicitors. In particular she was referring to the solicitor who recommended me her. She told me that he is old, has not worked in this field for a long time and has no clue how it works now. Moya insisted that it is one court case and if I proceed with small claims court, I will not be able to proceed with insurance claim. That the idea to go to small claims court even with the help of RLC is a bad one. She told me that even if QBE admitted liability it will no longer be valid and may need to prove it for insurance claim too. The claim through PIC will be dismissed and I will need to go to court. This will cause huge additional costs. She told me that the right thing to do is to simply include compensation for damage to the bicycle in my insurance claim and she will do this. She asked to send her receipt from the bicycle shop for replacement of the bicycle and it was damaged beyond repair. She also told me that it will undo all the good work we have done as we have PTSD recognized by PIC and that this will help for other injured people as they will teach about it in Sydney University. It sounded strange to me as I could not imagine Moya having any connection with Sydney University. Moya was very insistent that I have no right to continue with small claims court. She also said that she will need to take some urgent action related to my claim, but she gave me no details. PTSD puts me in a place where I get easily overwhelmed by the situation and I was not physically able to do anything else, but to accept Moya ultimatum. She updated my statement to be against the driver, but later on when I sent her information about damage to the bicycle she called me recommending not to do so. I spoke with her about twice on the phone till I finally gave in and agreed to write to her not to include bicycle repair estimates in my claim. At that time I did not know about fawn response to threats. Now I know more and try to avoid it. However, it is still easy to manipulate me. Nevertheless it does not excuse Moya's actions in any way. Much later I learned that all Moya said about small claims court to me was not true. I don't really know why she did this. At some point she told me that she did this in case QBE would decide suddenly to make a good offer and knowledge about a small claims court case might delay it. However, at that time Moya already knew that QBE sent an application to have a review of my medical assessment, so they were not going to suddenly make a good offer. The problem is that it had a massive negative effect on me. I spent so much time and effort preparing for a small court case. All I needed was official recognition that it was against the rule what the driver did. I lost that chance because of incorrect advice and manipulation. My PTSD symptoms went over any sustainable level. I could not get continuous sleep for longer than 40 minutes. Coming back to sleep has become very difficult. I started feeling so unsafe at home that after waking up with nightmares I would need to rush outside to control a panic attack. My hyper-vigilance jumped so high that there was no energy left for anything else. It took away most of the progress of the treatment I had for the last few years.
 
====Failure to provide information about fraudulent Vanitha Moodley report====
Moya told me not to worry about the Vanitha report she will deal with it. I have provided Moya with the list of main errors and reminded about it several times. However, time passed, and she did nothing about it (I was thinking that she has done something, just did not informed me). The consequences for not dismissing the Vanitha report were terrible. That report could have been easily dismissed as it has an enormous list of absurd factual errors (I counted 146) that would require a teleportation device, time travel, is completely insistent and so on. I cannot believe how the solicitor can be this negligent or even worse intentionally did not want to dispute it. One possible explanation would be that Moya did not want to cause trouble for psychologist that is part of PIC experts. Only much later I learned that Moodley is famous for writing false reports.
 
QBE used Moodley report as key argument for review of independent assessment that I have PTSD. I was not aware of all detail, but that was another excellent opportunity for Moya to highlight how absurd Moodley report is, but she has done nothing and review was granted. Unfortunately, the PIC medical assessment panel took this into account and my chances to get anything more than a so-called buffer ($100,000) for the loss of income became minuscule. I have no income since the injury and future looks very grim. Before the injury I was a highly skilled software developer with a PhD in computer science.
 
As a result, it was included in decision making by medical assessment review panel and severely damaged my claim. I think Moodley report impacted review of medical assessment that concluded that I had some adaptive impairment before the injury and was only capable of doing work that was lesser degree than my skills. The decision of panel was final. I think it reduced my chances to get compensation for past and future income loss and as a result I got only buffer ($100k compensation for the past income) and not much more for the future. I attach panel decision. Moya tried to mention it later in particulars, but it was too late.


====Psychological pressure to settle====
Ms Leonard contacted Ms Campbell to counsel. She was meant to help to address listed issues, but most of them were left not dealt with.
Some time after PTSD was recognized by independent assessor Moya asked do I want to settle. I maintained my view that previous lawyers from Law Partners used fake settlement negotiations only to inflate fees. I do not want spend time trying to settle and would like to go straight to independent assessment of my claim. Moya forwarded me an offer from QBE that did not include any compensation for loss of past income in September 2021. I told her that I do not agree, and I would like to go to independent assessment. Then Moya told me that QBE asked for review of medical assessment and we can not proceed till it is rejected or accepted and done.


PIC panel medical review left PTSD, but added new information that I had reduced capacity to work before the injury. I was not asked about it during assessment and the only source telling this was fraudulent Moodley report. Moya blamed previous solicitors and me for this failure. Then instead of trying to fix her errors (negligence or corruption) she suddenly started putting heavy pressure on my to accept settlement without any compensation for loss of income. As argument she told me that it will affect my Centrelink payments, but I am not receiving any. Some communications were quite offensive. As ultimate pressure she resigned.
===Ms Campbell work===
I have not dealt with Ms Campbell directly. This very short info about her work. I do not know if Ms Campbell was involved before independent medical assessment if she was involved I was not kept in the loop properly. I know about her work only from what I got from Ms Leonard:
# I was meant to meet barrister Michelle Campbell for the first time in April 2021 (see "2021-03-25 email from Moya - appointment to see Campbell rescheduled.pdf"). I thought this would be the time to learn about her expected involvement, amount of expected work, fees.
# QBE solicitor Ceballos sent an appeal to independent assessment on 2021-04-14 (see assessment and appeal in attachments).
# Ms Leonard cancelled meeting with Campbell (see 2021-04-15 email from Moya cancelling meeting with Campbell.pdf).
# I wrote to Ms Leonard highlighting that Ceballos appeal is based on incorrect information (misquoted referenced documents to completely change meaning). An example: in my statement I wrote: "65. I had a similar demoralising experience back in 2016 in relation to a small job for a Swedish firm which my brother put me in touch with. That is something that should have taken a week or even less and which I was unable to complete within 6 weeks." Ceballos wrote: "The claimant obtained a role in Sweden in 2016, allegedly working for a period of 6 weeks – paragraph 65 of his statement dated 29 April 2019". I wrote a long list of incorrect statements by Ceballos.
# Campbell wrote reply submissions on 2021-04-29 (see "2021-05-04 lr client email 24 plus submissions - Campbell reply to QBE appeal.pdf"). Campbell's submission does not dispute any incorrect statements by Ceballos. She only writes how the assessor addressed them. However, it is inaccurate, these statements are factually incorrect and have been written by Ceballos after the assessment.
# There has been more communication with PIC, but appeal was granted and review for assessment was assigned.
# I have about a 40 min zoom meeting with Ms Campbell.
# She prepared a statement based on information I provided. I previously provided all required information to Ms Leonard. Ms Leonard was critical of the previous statement by Law Partners, but did not provide any info how it should look.
# She provided me with advice to settle. However, it felt that she did not consider my case properly before giving it.
# The PIC assessment review reconfirmed PTSD and impairment caused by road traffic injury. Unfortunately, in my understanding, it also took into account factually incorrect statements by Ceballos and Moodley (mentioned earlier) and added an assessment that significantly damaged my claim.
# Ms Campbell removed herself from my claim.


====Exaggerated legal costs====
===My complaint against Ms Campbell===
Moya estimated costs at $60,000 before she started representing me. She has done only fraction of the work yet, the bill is already higher than original estimate. While representing me Moya updated me on the phone about her ongoing fees few times. The last time she mentioned it, she told me that if claim will be settled soon, and there was a chance, at the end her fees including the barrister consultations should be no more than $17,000. However, when she sent me a bill about month later it was over $40,000 and there was very little work done. I told her that I do not agree with fees as she quoted 60,000 for whole claim going to court and we were far from it. I tried my best to get some control over the situation, but it led nowhere. Year later she slammed me with updated bill for $77,000 while the only thing she did was to write several emails and resend some documents. BTW she did it very bad missing key information, that led to the situation where I basically lost any chances to get compensation for loss of income.
====Costs====
Ms. Campbell grossly exaggerated her fees. I was informed about Ms. Campbell work by Ms. Leonard and it seems way less than claimed by Ms. Campbell.  


Majority of her bill consist of task that she actually did very little (like one page of particulars in settlement offer) or had very little or no purpose for my claim. Also most of these task did not require or reflect the skills she claimed to have. Actually many would been done better by any novice specialist if done properly.
As I directly did not contact Ms Campbell I rely on information provided by Ms Leonard and I did not find her informing me about work done in 2020.


====Resigning from case with fake reasons====
Ms Campbell did some work in 2021, but it seems for me to be way less than she claims, especially when preparing submissions.
Pressure to settle did not work simply because I already had this experience with Law Partners, this was one of the core reasons why I came to Moya: to bring my claim to independent assessment. I told Moya that I want for my claim to be submitted for independent assessment. Previously she was claiming that she has spent a lot of time preparing my claim and at any point everything is ready to submit for assessment. So, I asked her to do it. Instead of doing this she wrote to me that she is resigning. She provided some fake reasons that she feels like I do not trust her or later on, that it will affect my Centrelink payments. However, I am not receiving any payments form Centrelink. Even after resigning she was putting pressure to settle. The only explanation I can come up with is:
# she felt that due to her negligence my claim was damaged beyond repair,
# she exaggerated her fees claiming for the work she has not done, and she did not want anyone to look at it.


====Incorrect information provided about current legal representation====
I have met her only once at a zoom meeting that lasted about 40 minutes. She has prepared an update for my statement. However, I could have done it myself and maybe even more accurately if given instructions on what has to be included in the statement. Ms. Campbell wrote one piece of advice about the settlement proposal after I told Ms. Leonard that I am not interested in settling and I would like to have my claim assessed by an independent assessor. I had previously had a terrible experience with useless (felt like fake) settlement negotiations and did not want to get involved with it again. I was shocked when I got Michelle's invoice for $13,090. I do not know where it comes from.  
Moya informed QBE solicitor that she is no longer representing me and that they should contact directly me or solicitor Garry Penhall. This implies that Garry is representing me. This is not true. Garry was just providing me emotional support dealing with the difficult situation Moya put me in. As a result, QBE informed PIC that I found new solicitor, and they no longer need to give time to look for solicitor. It put me in difficult situation as suddenly I had no time to think and clear my concerns about the solicitor to go ahead with. As a result, I made bad choice and had to stick with it.


====Moya lied that I accepted her fees====
====Poor advice and representation====
She wrote to QBE solicitor that her fees were accepted knowing that it is not true and asking for the fees to be paid directly. By doing this she is delaying compensation payout.
I describe short info of Ms Campbell work in the previous section “Ms Campbell Work. I believe some of it was not done according to professional standards.  


After Moya resigned, I found a new solicitor Peter Livers. I thought that by breaking the contract Moya resigns from her fees or part of it. I told Moya then that I do not agree with her fees. I was told by another solicitor that I may be required to pay some fees. We signed a tripartite agreement (see "2023-01-24 triparted deed signed.pdf") and sent it to Moya to sign and transfer the file. The tripartite agreement includes clauses that "'''C''' The client may be required, bond or liable to pay costs to the former practitioner" and "'''3.1 THE CLIENT''' gives to the present practitioner on irrevocable authority, for valuable consideration, to receive money from the other party and to pay the former practitioner’s costs of an amount to be agreed or, failing agreement, as assessed".
Ms Campbell prepared submissions to dismiss appeal to review independent medical assessment. However, Ms. Campbell ignored information about errors in Ceballos (QBE solicitor) statements and a report provided by insurer QBE written by psychologist Vanitha Moodley (these two have a lot of similarities). The consequences for not dismissing this incorrect information were terrible. It could have been easily dismissed as it has an enormous list of absurd factual errors. For Moodley's report I counted 146; it would require a teleportation device, time travel, it is completely inconsistent and so on. I cannot believe how lawyers can be this negligent or even worse intentionally did not want to dispute it. QBE used this report to complain about medical assessment and ask for review. Ms. Campbell should have prepared arguments to dismiss Moodley report and Ceballos arguments if Ms. Campbell did at least a small part of the work she claims to have done. Unfortunately it was not done and review was granted. I believe the PIC medical assessment panel took some of this incorrect information into account and my chances to get anything more than a so-called buffer ($100,000) for the loss of income became minuscule. I have no income since the injury and future looks very grim. Before the injury I was a highly skilled software developer with a PhD in computer science.  


Recently I found out that she wrote to QBE solicitor Timothy Ceballos to pay her directly all fees. Timothy informed that he is ready to do so and is illegally (or at least I believe so) holding payout. She also wrote to Peter lying that she has an agreement for her fees to be paid directly to her (see "2023-08-31 email from Moya to Livers lying that her fees were accepted.pdf"), Peter did not agree.
To make it worse I think her advice about settling was negligent. It seems she did not look at my case properly. The advice did not take into account my qualification, work before the injury (on my own project) or later attempts to come back to work.


After being asked to comply with previous agreement and have her fees to be held at Peter trust account till they were agreed or assessed Moya wrote to QBE stating that her fees were accepted and demanding to block compensation pay (see "2023-10-19 emails Moya Peter - Moya demands full pay implying that it was accepted.pdf").
====Poor communication or rudeness====
At some point Ms. Leonard informed me that Ms. Campbell retired from work and can not represent me. However, I still see her in the list of barristers. It may have been just a way to apply psychological pressure on me to settle without independent assessment to avoid extra fees for introducing a new barrister.


On 2023-10-24 I sent an email to Moya offering to pay her reasonable fees, but she has not replied to it yet (see "2023-10-24 email to Moya - Moya de Luca-Leonard legal fees for my personal injury claim.pdf").
===Emotional impact of Ms Campbell work===
My experience with Ms. Campbell made me think that including the barrister in the claim is just a waste of money. She was not abusive like previous barrister Ken Pryde, she actually was polite, but I can not identify significant benefits for including her in the claim. Definitely does not match the bill she provided. I am not aware of the contribution to my claim she is stating in her bill. My claim did not go to independent assessment even if I was asking for it. Ms. Campbell's involvement felt like a barrier to it. Unfortunately this negatively affected my future decisions


By lying that her fees were accepted and blocking compensation payment Moya is adding additional stress, when I am already struggling to cope. However, she knows my mental health status very well and I believe this is her strategy: by bullying to completely break my spirit. To some degree it is working as it causing harm to my health.
===About preparing complaint===
I am trying to describe everything as accurately as I can. Unfortunately many of these memories cause high levels of stress. It quickly triggers PTSD response and shuts down my ability to think. Often I have to take a long break or can continue only the next day or even later. This is the second time I am writing a complaint about a lawyer, but the previous one has not been processed yet so I still do not know if I am doing it well. If there is more information required please let me know. Previously I tried to fit everything into 1 application with 10 attachments. This meant that I had to merge many documents and I think it is not a good idea. I realized that you probably handle everything in electronic form and it would be much easier if every document is a separate file. So, I will attach the ones that I think are more important and send others later. This also makes it difficult to describe everything in detail. So, I hope the best way is to provide here a brief description of what happened and what I am complaining about and then provide more detailed information about specifics with attached evidence.


===Impact of Moya actions===
There were also other problems related to PTSD as some memories got blocked and I am at risk of missing some important information while writing a complaint, but it might come back later. Also when stressed I may not express myself very clearly, partially it is due to the fact that then I think in Lithuanian and may lose some meaning in translation. However, I do my best to be precise and I try to present facts accurately (actually I have many of them running in my mind, just struggling to put them in writing in a clear way). I am also tired all the time and I constantly have to push myself to exhaustion while still getting only several productive hours a week. I dedicate all my time and energy to solving my legal problems as it is also a way to get better. I hope I am not missing any deadlines this time.
At the start I was worried as I thought that Moya is not paying enough attention to the problems I come to her with. However, she reassured me many times that she is very well skilled in these matters and I should leave it to her. I was in very dark place with severely reduced cognitive abilities, so I had no choice, but to trust her. At some point there was a glimmer of hope as there new independent assessment was assigned and the report was very accurate.


However, after this things did not go well. Her push to drop last chance to get some feeling of justice against the driver significantly intensified PTSD symptoms. Since then I had to spend all my time trying to heal damage on my mental health and attend the problems she promised to deal with, but was ignoring. Her actions after unfortunate medical assessment in September 2022 just completely destroyed my faith in solicitors who work on hourly basis. Since then I spent all my time and energy trying to fix situation, but failed. All this could have been avoided, last 2 years were of needles suffering and the future looks very grim, and she had to do was to do her job. Any good things can be overwritten if you do bad things after it. All for greed, to charge higher fees, while doing less work.
I also do not know what to do with some attachments. For example there are some documents that were dozens of pages, but the information that I needed is only on one page. If I try to upload all the files I may reach file size limit, but if I take only one page from the document it might look suspicious. I hope to ask about this to the person who will be assigned to assess my complaint.
Before I got PTSD myself I never imagined how debilitating it is. It is hard to describe it and I would need to be telling it for a very long time, but I will try to provide information about it in a separate document.


===Attachments===
===Attachments===
# Complaint details
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
# Cost agreement
|-
# Itemized bills
!No!!File!!Reason
# Emails
|-
|1||Details of Complaint about barrister Michelle Campbell||Complaint text
|-
|2||2021-03-25 email from Moya - appointment to see Campbell rescheduled.pdf||Appointment to meet Ms Campbell for first time
|-
|3||2021-04-15 email from Moya canceling meeting with Campbell.pdf||Canceling appointment with Campbell. Asked to prepare a reply.
|-
|4||2021-04-14 - Letter to c sols serving PIC Application - appeal to assessment.pdf||Ceballos (QBE) appeal to independent medical assessment
|-
|5||2021-04-20-30 emails from-to Moya Ceballos appeal and my comments with evidence of errors.pdf||My comments with evidence that Ceballos appeal is based on incorrect information (misquoted referenced documents to completely change meaning).
|-
|6||2021-04-26 appealComments.pdf||My comments about appeal
|-
|7||2021-05-04 lr client email 24 plus submissions - Campbell reply to QBE appeal.pdf||Campbell reply to QBE appeal
|-
|8||2022-10-19 lr qbe 9 offer.pdf||Ms Leonard’ offer to QBE with one page particulars and an attempt to provide the information, but too late.
|-
|9||2022-11-07 Michelle Campbell Tax Invioce.pdf||Barrister invoice
|-
|10||2023-01-24 triparted deed signed.pdf||Tripartite deed agreeing for cost assessment
|-
|11||2023-08-31 email from Moya to Livers Moya stating that her fees were accepted.pdf||Ms Leonard incorrectly states that her fees have been accepted.
|-
|12||2023-10-19 emails Moya Peter - Moya demands full pay implying that it was accepted.pdf||Ms Leonard asks for full payment as if it was accepted
|-
|13||2023-10-24 email to Moya - Moya de Luca-Leonard legal fees for my personal injury claim.pdf||My offer to Ms Leonard about her and Ms Campbell fees
|}

Latest revision as of 03:19, 2 November 2023

This is a complaint to the Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner about barrister Michelle Campbell. Complaint has 9 steps, so I go one by one. Some information is hidden to protect privacy of involved people.

Complaint Details

Have you tried to resolve matter with the lawyer?

Yes.

If yes, how? If not, why not?

Note: an electronic form may lose text formatting, so I add the same information in a separate document as an attachment together with detailed info named “2023-10-29 Complaint to OLSC about barrister Michelle Campbell.pdf”.

Michelle Campbell provided counseling for solicitor Moya de Luca-Leonard. I have not contacted her directly only through Ms. Leonard. There is a tripartite agreement to have costs agreed or assessed, but Moya de Luca-Leonard is providing incorrect information that her costs have been accepted. On 2023-10-24 I sent an email to Ms. Leonard offering to pay her and Ms. Campbell reasonable fees, but Moya has not replied to it yet.

If I understand correctly, the bill is not payable as the contract with Ms. Leonard. The bill becomes payable only after money is received from insurance. Same applies to Michelle bill. I have PTSD from the road traffic injury, and they represented me on a personal injury claim for this injury. It makes it very difficult for me to deal with anything related to the injury and I misunderstood the deadlines in the past. To avoid a similar situation, I am submitting a complaint while in my understanding there is still room for negotiations.

Please provide a summary of your complaint and include the following details:

  • What happened? Who was involved?
  • Details of significant events, such as dates of meetings and court hearings.
  • What are your concerns?

I came to Ms. Leonard in June 2020 to help me with my personal injury claim after a road traffic injury on 2015-03-30. I have been with a previous personal injury firm named Law Partners. Ms. Leonard promised to deal with exorbitant costs from Law Partners and to significantly improve my claim. Ms. Leonard included Ms. Campbell for counseling, but I am not sure what was the role of Ms. Campbell. I have met her only once at a zoom meeting that lasted about 40 minutes. She has prepared an update for my statement. However, I could have done it myself and maybe even more accurately if given instructions on what has to be included in the statement. Ms. Campbell wrote one piece of advice about the settlement proposal after I told Ms. Leonard that I am not interested in settling and I would like to have my claim assessed by an independent assessor. I had previously had a terrible experience with useless (felt like fake) settlement negotiations and did not want to get involved with it again. I was shocked when I got Michelle's invoice for $13,090. I do not know where it comes from. To make it worse I think her advice about settling was negligent. It seems she did not look at my case properly. The advice did not take into account my qualification, work before the injury (on my own project) or later attempts to come back to work.

Ms. Campbell ignored information about errors in Ceballos (QBE solicitor) statements and a report provided by insurer QBE written by psychologist Vanitha Moodley (these two have a lot of similarities). The consequences for not dismissing this incorrect information were terrible. It could have been easily dismissed as it has an enormous list of absurd factual errors. For Moodley's report I counted 146; it would require a teleportation device, time travel, it is completely inconsistent and so on. I cannot believe how lawyers can be this negligent or even worse intentionally did not want to dispute it. QBE used this report to complain about medical assessment and ask for review. Ms. Campbell should have prepared arguments to dismiss Moodley report and Ceballos arguments if Ms. Campbell did at least a small part of the work she claims to have done. Unfortunately it was not done and review was granted. I believe the PIC medical assessment panel took some of this incorrect information into account and my chances to get anything more than a so-called buffer ($100,000) for the loss of income became minuscule. I have no income since the injury and future looks very grim. Before the injury I was a highly skilled software developer with a PhD in computer science.

Ms. Campbell grossly exaggerated her fees. I was informed about Ms. Campbell work by Ms. Leonard and it seems way less than claimed by Ms. Campbell. At some point Ms. Leonard informed me that Ms. Campbell retired from work and can not represent me. However, I still see her in the list of barristers. It may have been just a way to apply psychological pressure on me to settle without independent assessment to avoid extra fees for introducing a new barrister.

I believe there is negligence in her work and legal fees are exaggerated.

How do you want us to help you to resolve your complaint?

Please note: One of our officers may contact you to discuss what we can and we cannot do

  1. Her bill is grossly exaggerated, please help me to reduce it to reasonable sum
  2. I have not signed agreement with Ms. Campbell and I believe regulated costs should be applied when all actions taken into account
  3. By removing herself from claim without any reason given her fees should be affected too as to get barrister representation for independent assessment there will be need for extra work
  4. I believe some of her actions unprofessional and at least negligent. I believe this should reduce her fees. I hope you will take an appropriate action.

What area of legal service does this complaint arise from?

Personal injuries

Are you disputing the legal costs you have been charged by your lawyer?

Yes

Notes

I have submitted complaint about solicitor Moya de Luca-Leonard who hired Ms. Campbell to provide counselling, because of this some information is duplicated. Complaint number for Ms Leonard is CAS014655.

Background

I was cycling in Sydney when a car from oncoming traffic made a right turn straight into me on 2015-03-30. I was sure I was going to die when I saw a car accelerating towards me. I survived, but among other things the fear stayed. Since then, I am struggling with PTSD.

I was frustrated with the way QBE (drivers insurance company) was managing the claim, so I initially contacted Law Partners to represent me. However, I was unhappy with their representation. I feel that they did not collect or submit important information about my health problems. At the end of April 2020, I got a report by Vanitha Moodley (a psychologist hired by QBE solicitors) that had a large number of absurd errors.

Due to concerns about Law Partners’ advice about this report, I contacted one solicitor whom I knew. He recommended to me Ms Leonard, who helped him in the past with one client who had a personal injury claim, as he worked in a different area of law. This is how I ended up with Ms Leonard.

Ms Leonard received information that set out my concerns, which were:

  1. Issues with Moodley’s report;
  2. Law Partners fees being exaggerated and well above what had been quoted;
  3. PTSD had not been recognized, and;
  4. Law Partners’ unwillingness to go to independent assessment or court.

Ms Leonard made me promises before I signed the costs agreement with her. These were the promises I got from Ms Leonard:

  1. Moodley report is not a big problem. She deals with reports like these all the time and she will have it dismissed easily (will not affect independent assessment).
  2. She has dealt with exaggerated legal fees in the past and has gone to court against other solicitors. She knows what she is doing. She will deal with it.
  3. PTSD is classified as physical injury, not as mental one, because it causes long lasting changes in the brain. I can apply for it to be assessed. Law Partners misinformed me that there is nothing that can be done.
  4. She will bring my claim to independent assessment or court if necessary and she is sure that I will have a much better financial outcome compared to what I can get now with Law Partners' offer. She said that my claim is relatively simple, but we need to move quickly in order to fix it.

Ms Leonard contacted Ms Campbell to counsel. She was meant to help to address listed issues, but most of them were left not dealt with.

Ms Campbell work

I have not dealt with Ms Campbell directly. This very short info about her work. I do not know if Ms Campbell was involved before independent medical assessment if she was involved I was not kept in the loop properly. I know about her work only from what I got from Ms Leonard:

  1. I was meant to meet barrister Michelle Campbell for the first time in April 2021 (see "2021-03-25 email from Moya - appointment to see Campbell rescheduled.pdf"). I thought this would be the time to learn about her expected involvement, amount of expected work, fees.
  2. QBE solicitor Ceballos sent an appeal to independent assessment on 2021-04-14 (see assessment and appeal in attachments).
  3. Ms Leonard cancelled meeting with Campbell (see 2021-04-15 email from Moya cancelling meeting with Campbell.pdf).
  4. I wrote to Ms Leonard highlighting that Ceballos appeal is based on incorrect information (misquoted referenced documents to completely change meaning). An example: in my statement I wrote: "65. I had a similar demoralising experience back in 2016 in relation to a small job for a Swedish firm which my brother put me in touch with. That is something that should have taken a week or even less and which I was unable to complete within 6 weeks." Ceballos wrote: "The claimant obtained a role in Sweden in 2016, allegedly working for a period of 6 weeks – paragraph 65 of his statement dated 29 April 2019". I wrote a long list of incorrect statements by Ceballos.
  5. Campbell wrote reply submissions on 2021-04-29 (see "2021-05-04 lr client email 24 plus submissions - Campbell reply to QBE appeal.pdf"). Campbell's submission does not dispute any incorrect statements by Ceballos. She only writes how the assessor addressed them. However, it is inaccurate, these statements are factually incorrect and have been written by Ceballos after the assessment.
  6. There has been more communication with PIC, but appeal was granted and review for assessment was assigned.
  7. I have about a 40 min zoom meeting with Ms Campbell.
  8. She prepared a statement based on information I provided. I previously provided all required information to Ms Leonard. Ms Leonard was critical of the previous statement by Law Partners, but did not provide any info how it should look.
  9. She provided me with advice to settle. However, it felt that she did not consider my case properly before giving it.
  10. The PIC assessment review reconfirmed PTSD and impairment caused by road traffic injury. Unfortunately, in my understanding, it also took into account factually incorrect statements by Ceballos and Moodley (mentioned earlier) and added an assessment that significantly damaged my claim.
  11. Ms Campbell removed herself from my claim.

My complaint against Ms Campbell

Costs

Ms. Campbell grossly exaggerated her fees. I was informed about Ms. Campbell work by Ms. Leonard and it seems way less than claimed by Ms. Campbell.

As I directly did not contact Ms Campbell I rely on information provided by Ms Leonard and I did not find her informing me about work done in 2020.

Ms Campbell did some work in 2021, but it seems for me to be way less than she claims, especially when preparing submissions.

I have met her only once at a zoom meeting that lasted about 40 minutes. She has prepared an update for my statement. However, I could have done it myself and maybe even more accurately if given instructions on what has to be included in the statement. Ms. Campbell wrote one piece of advice about the settlement proposal after I told Ms. Leonard that I am not interested in settling and I would like to have my claim assessed by an independent assessor. I had previously had a terrible experience with useless (felt like fake) settlement negotiations and did not want to get involved with it again. I was shocked when I got Michelle's invoice for $13,090. I do not know where it comes from.

Poor advice and representation

I describe short info of Ms Campbell work in the previous section “Ms Campbell Work. I believe some of it was not done according to professional standards.

Ms Campbell prepared submissions to dismiss appeal to review independent medical assessment. However, Ms. Campbell ignored information about errors in Ceballos (QBE solicitor) statements and a report provided by insurer QBE written by psychologist Vanitha Moodley (these two have a lot of similarities). The consequences for not dismissing this incorrect information were terrible. It could have been easily dismissed as it has an enormous list of absurd factual errors. For Moodley's report I counted 146; it would require a teleportation device, time travel, it is completely inconsistent and so on. I cannot believe how lawyers can be this negligent or even worse intentionally did not want to dispute it. QBE used this report to complain about medical assessment and ask for review. Ms. Campbell should have prepared arguments to dismiss Moodley report and Ceballos arguments if Ms. Campbell did at least a small part of the work she claims to have done. Unfortunately it was not done and review was granted. I believe the PIC medical assessment panel took some of this incorrect information into account and my chances to get anything more than a so-called buffer ($100,000) for the loss of income became minuscule. I have no income since the injury and future looks very grim. Before the injury I was a highly skilled software developer with a PhD in computer science.

To make it worse I think her advice about settling was negligent. It seems she did not look at my case properly. The advice did not take into account my qualification, work before the injury (on my own project) or later attempts to come back to work.

Poor communication or rudeness

At some point Ms. Leonard informed me that Ms. Campbell retired from work and can not represent me. However, I still see her in the list of barristers. It may have been just a way to apply psychological pressure on me to settle without independent assessment to avoid extra fees for introducing a new barrister.

Emotional impact of Ms Campbell work

My experience with Ms. Campbell made me think that including the barrister in the claim is just a waste of money. She was not abusive like previous barrister Ken Pryde, she actually was polite, but I can not identify significant benefits for including her in the claim. Definitely does not match the bill she provided. I am not aware of the contribution to my claim she is stating in her bill. My claim did not go to independent assessment even if I was asking for it. Ms. Campbell's involvement felt like a barrier to it. Unfortunately this negatively affected my future decisions

About preparing complaint

I am trying to describe everything as accurately as I can. Unfortunately many of these memories cause high levels of stress. It quickly triggers PTSD response and shuts down my ability to think. Often I have to take a long break or can continue only the next day or even later. This is the second time I am writing a complaint about a lawyer, but the previous one has not been processed yet so I still do not know if I am doing it well. If there is more information required please let me know. Previously I tried to fit everything into 1 application with 10 attachments. This meant that I had to merge many documents and I think it is not a good idea. I realized that you probably handle everything in electronic form and it would be much easier if every document is a separate file. So, I will attach the ones that I think are more important and send others later. This also makes it difficult to describe everything in detail. So, I hope the best way is to provide here a brief description of what happened and what I am complaining about and then provide more detailed information about specifics with attached evidence.

There were also other problems related to PTSD as some memories got blocked and I am at risk of missing some important information while writing a complaint, but it might come back later. Also when stressed I may not express myself very clearly, partially it is due to the fact that then I think in Lithuanian and may lose some meaning in translation. However, I do my best to be precise and I try to present facts accurately (actually I have many of them running in my mind, just struggling to put them in writing in a clear way). I am also tired all the time and I constantly have to push myself to exhaustion while still getting only several productive hours a week. I dedicate all my time and energy to solving my legal problems as it is also a way to get better. I hope I am not missing any deadlines this time.

I also do not know what to do with some attachments. For example there are some documents that were dozens of pages, but the information that I needed is only on one page. If I try to upload all the files I may reach file size limit, but if I take only one page from the document it might look suspicious. I hope to ask about this to the person who will be assigned to assess my complaint. Before I got PTSD myself I never imagined how debilitating it is. It is hard to describe it and I would need to be telling it for a very long time, but I will try to provide information about it in a separate document.

Attachments

No File Reason
1 Details of Complaint about barrister Michelle Campbell Complaint text
2 2021-03-25 email from Moya - appointment to see Campbell rescheduled.pdf Appointment to meet Ms Campbell for first time
3 2021-04-15 email from Moya canceling meeting with Campbell.pdf Canceling appointment with Campbell. Asked to prepare a reply.
4 2021-04-14 - Letter to c sols serving PIC Application - appeal to assessment.pdf Ceballos (QBE) appeal to independent medical assessment
5 2021-04-20-30 emails from-to Moya Ceballos appeal and my comments with evidence of errors.pdf My comments with evidence that Ceballos appeal is based on incorrect information (misquoted referenced documents to completely change meaning).
6 2021-04-26 appealComments.pdf My comments about appeal
7 2021-05-04 lr client email 24 plus submissions - Campbell reply to QBE appeal.pdf Campbell reply to QBE appeal
8 2022-10-19 lr qbe 9 offer.pdf Ms Leonard’ offer to QBE with one page particulars and an attempt to provide the information, but too late.
9 2022-11-07 Michelle Campbell Tax Invioce.pdf Barrister invoice
10 2023-01-24 triparted deed signed.pdf Tripartite deed agreeing for cost assessment
11 2023-08-31 email from Moya to Livers Moya stating that her fees were accepted.pdf Ms Leonard incorrectly states that her fees have been accepted.
12 2023-10-19 emails Moya Peter - Moya demands full pay implying that it was accepted.pdf Ms Leonard asks for full payment as if it was accepted
13 2023-10-24 email to Moya - Moya de Luca-Leonard legal fees for my personal injury claim.pdf My offer to Ms Leonard about her and Ms Campbell fees
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