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Hi we were given the name of a solicitor and I approached him for a quotation. He was only forthcoming with figures after we signed a letter of engagement and the figures were eye watering to say the least and ranged from £5,500>£16,000. An original figure he quoted was over £1000 which we assumed was a figure for the actual work itself and which is why we signed the letter of engagement. He now states this was research/groundwork, we also believed he would offer a free consultation but in a fairly exhaustive initial telephone conversation he never advised me otherwise and must have had some idea of what costs were as he does this work all the time, my point here is that he could have quite simply advised me in this call what anticipated costs would be. I did say to him that if he chose to do any preliminary work this was at his own risk/cost and how could we be liable when he hadn't even advised us that he was charging us. He has even managed to charge around £300 overnight following an initial email and for this introductory call. Should a solicitor make it entirely clear from first point of contact what his/her charges are? He also got all his figures wrong on the claim form and has resubmitted his claim back to court and he has scribbled different figures everywhere. The claim now looks like a spider has ran across it.
I went with an alternative lawyer who's costs were substantially less than the original solicitor I approached and who advised we didn't even need what he had previously proposed. The solicitor I originally approached then issued a county court claim for £895 which is causing us considerable stress and sleepless nights. I was advised that it is likely to be a similar cost to defend the claim. Is the original solicitor assuming that when we realise what the costs are to defend we will pay his bill. We don't understand how and why he can charge us for a quotation and how we've arrived in this position. It was clear we no more than required a quote from day one. We never signed anything or gave him any authority either written, verbal or otherwise i.e. we had no cause to and even if we were requested to sign anything we would have refused as we only required a quotation. My honest opinion is that he thought I was green because I had been referred on and he sought to take advantage. We did cobble together a 'defence' but we've now been contacted by the court that there needs to be, from what I understand, something submitted which constitutes a 'legal defence' which we are really struggling with. As I see it we signed a letter of engagement but were totally unaware of the excessive costs he was then to put forward i.e. these costs of £5,500>£16,000 were bounced back more or less by return email and he said in his email he was off on holiday and someone else would be dealing. I feel as though we've been trapped. Any help or a shove in the right direction really appreciated. Regards. Lauren
I went with an alternative lawyer who's costs were substantially less than the original solicitor I approached and who advised we didn't even need what he had previously proposed. The solicitor I originally approached then issued a county court claim for £895 which is causing us considerable stress and sleepless nights. I was advised that it is likely to be a similar cost to defend the claim. Is the original solicitor assuming that when we realise what the costs are to defend we will pay his bill. We don't understand how and why he can charge us for a quotation and how we've arrived in this position. It was clear we no more than required a quote from day one. We never signed anything or gave him any authority either written, verbal or otherwise i.e. we had no cause to and even if we were requested to sign anything we would have refused as we only required a quotation. My honest opinion is that he thought I was green because I had been referred on and he sought to take advantage. We did cobble together a 'defence' but we've now been contacted by the court that there needs to be, from what I understand, something submitted which constitutes a 'legal defence' which we are really struggling with. As I see it we signed a letter of engagement but were totally unaware of the excessive costs he was then to put forward i.e. these costs of £5,500>£16,000 were bounced back more or less by return email and he said in his email he was off on holiday and someone else would be dealing. I feel as though we've been trapped. Any help or a shove in the right direction really appreciated. Regards. Lauren
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