Is there anyone who knows about lawyers acting illegally or if they are?

I am looking into finding a lawyer for Legal Negligence, i have been fighting work cover since I was injured in 1992, I had a court case in 1996 in Mildura, my lawyers are no win no pay, but my court case in 1996 had no outcome, but my lawyers got paid, I got nothing, there was another court hearing in Melbourne a few weeks later that i was not told about, I didn’t even know it went on, we found out lately by going through our case files kept at my lawyers office, and correspondence of fees for first case. I don’t even know what the second hearing in Melbourne was about, my lawyer told me we had no medical evidence to precede at that time. i have been told no win no pay means that, so why did they get paid by work cover Victoria, they don’t hand over money for nothing. I think that something is up, recently my father inquired about my case to the boss of the firm when he was seeing him about his case and the boss didn’t know i had not got a payout, he assumed i did, dad asked if we could open the case again, the lawyer replied it was never closed. now another lawyer took on the case as original lawyer has left, he has stuffed up my case by preparing a brief that’s not incorporated all my injuries, we found out a few months ago as we meet my barrister for the first time just before the court was about to start, he stated i didn’t have a good case bla bla bla, i stopped him and said this is not the right injury what about my original injury, infection of the hand which then led to psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis after, he had no idea what I was talking about, so I explained, he was not happy at all, as I was not either as in a short time he had to go too court, so he said he will get a postponement and get a meeting with a judge, he did in Melbourne, judge ruled for me to see a medical panel, as I did two days ago, I found out no skin specialists, I went through my medical documents to see what some new medical reports that were done had said and I found out my skin specialist had said I have some psoriasis on my back, thin plagues under control, not true approximately 50% of my body is covered in it and it is severe, I have been in hospital with it sent by that doctor. Now I think that not all my symptoms have been presented to the judge as my barrister would be going on my medical reports as I have only talked to him for about 10 minutes that day and that’s it. I have sacked the lawyer from my case he did not even come to court on the day. The boss of the firm is going to take his place. Im getting shafted and I do not think that I am getting a fair case due to lawyers lack of duty of care to my case, yes its been going on since 1992 when I was injured and I have not worked since and have had no compensation, I truly believe that something illegal has been going on between lawyers on both sides as there is no files relating to the case in 1996 at Mildura at my lawyers, only the bill we grabbed, and work cover victoria don’t have any records either, we have asked, no one knows the outcome as no papers to say what happened are to be found.

Is there anyone who knows about lawyers acting illegally or if they are?
As per usual here, you have been given some bad advice from Americans who don't know the law in Australia. The term in Australia is professional negligence (not malpractice) so you were right.





The first thing you need to do is go to (or call) the courthouse where your case was first heard and ask at the Registry how you obtain a transcript of the hearing. You can get a copy of the transcript of every time your case was in open court - even if it was just for interim procedural steps - you should get a copy of every one of these. Your main problem at the moment is that you have been kept in the dark about exactly what is going on with your case, so you need to read the transcripts to see exactly what your lawyers have been telling the judges.





The transcripts should also reveal how there was a hearing in Melbourne without you being present (I can only guess that it might have been about costs, and not about the case itself - mind you, if it was only a costs argument before an assessor, there will probably not be a transcript).





Only after you have all the transcripts can you decide what to do - whether to seek advice for professional negligence, or whether the case is, in fact, still progressing.





If you do have to seek advice about professional negligence, contact the Victorian Law Society (not the Bar Association) in the first instance, and ask them to recommend a specialist in that area of law.
Reply:Sounds like that first lawyer may have been working for the other side. Getting paid to purposely malpractice you. As far as the records go...the court should have transcripts from all the hearings that took place. Maybe finding a fresh hungry lawyer who knows personal injury might be in your best interest.
Reply:You have a complex problem. If you feel that your attorney has not represented you in a responsible manner you can sue for Legal Malpractice. (The term is legal mapractice not legal negligence.) Very few attorneys do Legal Malpractice cases. ( Other attorneys do not like them.) To find a an attorney that does legal malpractice cases search for an attorney at http://www.martindale.com or http://www.lawyers.com These website will help. (There are other websites but these are excellent!!!)





You can also complain to the State of (your state's name here) Bar Association. They keep records of complaints and sometimes do something about it. There is also what is called the (Your State) Bar Of Overseers which functions somewhat like a court inside the (Your State) Bar Association





My sense here is that you need an attorney that will take you case seriously. I do not know whether you need to bring a legal malpractice case in order to do that. You can bring a legal malpractice case, but the legal malpractice case will be about legal malpractice, not about the substance of the original issues. You need to find yourself and attorney who wil take your case seriously and work diligently on it. ( If you find such a person please let me know.) (My experience is that lawyers charge for their time and do as little work as needed, to comply with acceptable standards.) What dilligent work is done is usally done by a paralegal in the back office that gets paid about 1/10 of what the attorney charges per hour. Don't get discouraged, there are good people out there , you just have to beat the bushes to find them.





Figue out what it is you want your attorney to do. Hire the best attorney you can find who does tha t kind of work very well!!!





I WISH YOU GOOD LUCK IN YOUR SEARCH FOR DILIGENT AND CONCERNED ATTORNEY!!!!!!!!