Unexpected solicitor bill

[Bessiebrown]

I have received a solicitor’s bill which I was not expecting. I paid £500 for a consultation for advice at which meeting the head partner told me that she woukd help me (her words) and reach out to ask a barrister to act pro bono. She was very aware that I woukd have to be litigant in person. She was aware of the history of the case. I did not sign a letter of engagement as I was not formally instructing her but was happy to take up her offer of a barrister pro bono. This did not materialise and I was advised a week later that there was another barrister who woukd look at my case for a fee of £2200 for a few hours work. I agreed to this and paid the fee as I was running out of time. I have now received an additional bill from the solicitors for some £1800 or more.

[echat11]

Hi Bessiebrown

Write to the solicitor's, explain what's happened, explain that you are disputing the 'unexpected fees', those fees weren't agreed. See what their position is, if you are not happy with their response and providing you get a final response - you can lodge a complaint with the Legal Ombudsman Service. Keep all communications in writing, they might want to discuss over the phone, don't.

https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

[ULA]

Sorry I have some questions to assist my understanding.

You say you did not sign any engagement letter did you sign what is called a client care letter?

You say you paid £500 for the initial consultation was that covered by any terms of engagement or client care letter?

The fee paid to the barrister did you pay this via the solicitor and were you provided an estimate for this by the solicitor?

Has the bill from the solicitor been itemised?

[EnglandPi]

If the solicitor instructed the barrister on your behalf and you paid the barrister, I assume the addition is the solicitors fee but I could be wrong. the answers to the above questions would help.clarify.

[Bessiebrown]

Hi and thank you for your helpful responses. I did not sign any letter of engagement nor did I receive one until just a couple of days ago, effectively 6 weeks after my consultation which was on 16 June with the solicitor I paid the barristers fees via the solicitor on 25 June. I was advised of the barristers fee in an email and reluctantly agreed to pay it over the telephone although I voiced that the senior partner had said she woukd try and get a barrister pro bono. The bill is itemised which I received on 12th July

in the letter dated 27 July she states the estimated cost of the work woukd be £3000 plus vat

thank you for all your help

[echat11]

Here's some info on appointing a solicitor, paying a solicitor, price transparency and transparency / service.

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/pub...ng-a-solicitor

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/pub...or-a-solicitor

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/re...price-service/

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/gu...e-and-service/

[Bessiebrown]

Following on from my original post regarding the unexpected solicitors bill which is outstanding at some £1,800. I paid an £500 consultation fee with the Senior Partner I did not instruct them and the solicitor understood , that I had been litigant in person and would continue to be if I was to Appeal. She started the meeting with saying that she advises her clients to weigh up costs versus gains on an appeal process and I had said that I would have to represent myself so therefore would not have costs. She said that she would 'help' me and also reach out and see if she could find a barrister pro bono which at the ninth hour did not materialise and I had to pay a further £1,800 for counsel to peruse the papers and my draft grounds of appeal and agreed that he would present me with grounds of appeal and skeleton argument to file within the fee. I then had to pay a n additional £600 to the barrister after I had filed the Grounds of Appeal as the skeleton argument was not definite and ready to be filed as he stated and had to be rewritten. In short once the barrister realised that I would be litigiant in person he ost interest in my case and the SA which he said was a work in progress did not match up to the grounds of appeal or the work of a senior barrister. It was most unsatisfactory and I complained to the solicitor who had instructed him which is where I then had to pay the further fee for the SA to be rewritten. As I have said before I received the solicitors unexpected itemised bill some 3 weeks after the consultation meeting and then the terms of business letter followed 2 weeks after that, some 5 weeks after my consultation meeting.

I wrote disputing the bill on 2nd August and received their reply on 6th August enclosing a further bill for £1,560 (which is effectively what they are charging for liaising with the barrister regarding his poor skeleton argument). I have not replied as I have been too stressed and not very well and then on Friday received a further email from the senior partner saying that I had not replied with my position and they would instruct their debt collection agency.

Please help with some advice.

[echat11]

Firstly try to calm down.

Form the information you have provided, you didn't receive documents from the law firm when you should have, they weren't transparent about their charges when they should have been. You need put all the facts / communications (look up the way they should of acted reference Code of Conduct) together to make your complaint. You need to sit down, write a chronology of events, then cross reference what documents they should have provided you with and when. Also when they should have to you about fees and when they actually did. Make a complaint to the legal ombudsman service provided they have provided you with their final response.

https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

I would write to them stating that they failed to provide various documentation when they should have and there was a total lack of transparency with regards to their charges and a complaint has been lodged with the legal ombudsman service. They should stop any collection activity while the matter is with the legal ombudsman service.

Before you do this, wait for other members to give you further input. ULA

[ULA]

If the initial consultation fee was paid for as a one off fee, then even if you misinterpreted the intentions of the partner, terms of business/client care letter should have been sent following the consultation setting out what work they can do for you in relation to liaising with the barrister and detailing the fees for this further work. Typically you are are asked to sign and return these to indicate your acceptance, however many clients do not, so there is normally a term that explains that if you continue to instruct the solicitor this will be deemed acceptance of the terms and therefore the fees to be paid.

If you are not happy with the response you have received from the firm and you do not believe they have been transparent about fees then, given this correspondence was dated 2 August you do need to respond back to them and I agree with echat11 that your next course of action is to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and you need to inform the firm of this.

[echat11]

If the initial consultation fee was paid for as a one off fee, then even if you misinterpreted the intentions of the partner, terms of business/client care letter should have been sent following the consultation setting out what work they can do for you in relation to liaising with the barrister and detailing the fees for this further work. Typically you are are asked to sign and return these to indicate your acceptance, however many clients do not, so there is normally a term that explains that if you continue to instruct the solicitor this will be deemed acceptance of the terms and therefore the fees to be paid.

If you are not happy with the response you have received from the firm and you do not believe they have been transparent about fees then, given this correspondence was dated 2 August you do need to respond back to them and I agree with echat11 that your next course of action is to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and you need to inform the firm of this.

Thank you.

[echat11]

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/gu...-care-letters/

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/pub...or-a-solicitor

[Bessiebrown]

Thank you all. You have been very helpful and kind. Having just got through their invoice they have effectively charged £1700 for just receiving and sending emails and another £1,000 in dealing with the unacceptable SA and communicating with me and the barrister about it. Fortunately their terms of business letter which arrived 27th July ( two and a half weeks after I had filed the Skeleton Argument on 16th July) and I had had no further correspondence with them since the filing of the document. I did state in my letter to them that they had not been transparent about their fees and that there ethical advise should have been to go Direct Access (being aware of my precarious financial position if they were intending to charge me (of which I was unaware). I am aware from past experience with lawyers that they will not even commence work without a signed terms of engagement letter.

I will start the complaints procedure to the Legal Ombudsman and thank you all again

[Bessiebrown]

Where in the SRA Code of conduct should I be looking for how they should have acted regarding charges etc

[echat11]

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/st...conduct-firms/, there is information in the links posted in post #11.
Take your time doing this, once you've written it out, leave it for 4 / 5 hours, go back and read it again, make changes, keep doing it until you are happy with it.

[ULA]

I would assume that in the itemised bill they have charged you in 6 minute units. Reading a "short" email is typically 1 unit.

I suggest you review the law firms website, you have not set out what your legal issue is concerning but for several areas of law under the SRA Transparency rule there are a number of legal areas firms are required to detail their legal fees on their websites. Please see link below:

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/re...price-service/


If your issue is not in an area covered by these rules then follow the link below specifically 1.5

https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/transparency-rules/#rule-1