Unexpected Solicitor bill after initial meeting

[rajan]

Hi all - I'm after some advice regarding a relatively large bill issued from a solicitor following an initial meeting, regarding estate planning, where there was no agreement or instruction in place, and also nothing particularly specific discussed:

I'd booked an initial meeting with the solicitor, who was a recommended to me from a family friend, to discuss estate/IHT planning for a parent. At no point prior to the meeting or during the meeting were fees discussed and, as far as I was concerned, the meeting was to establish whether the solicitor was the right type of advisor to assist in our case. There was also no draft agreement or instruction sent to us prior to the meeting. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes and we did discuss general IHT rules and strategies but nothing really specific to our situation, and nothing of use in terms of actual decision making for us. It became apparent during the meeting that the solicitor wasn't the right type of advisor for us.

A couple of weeks later we received a draft agreement and summary of what was discussed during the meeting by mail. The draft agreement was covered the call we'd had two weeks prior, as well as the written summary, at a cost of £1200 inc VAT.

IMHO the fee seems fairly unreasonable for the service, especially given that there was no useful advice given, but more importantly is there not a requirement for a law firm to disclose what they'll charge prior to any engagement? The SRA appears to suggest so, but I don't have a feel for how binding their conduct guidelines are. In this case especially, the solicitor has indicated that the £1200 fee is a fixed fee so clearly this would've been a triviality to disclose prior to any engagement.

I'm really not familiar at all with how solicitor fees work but asking me to be bound to an agreement after the fact when no fee was discussed at any point seems a bit absurd to me. As in, what's to stop fees being completely unbounded?

I'm certainly not planning to sign that agreement in its current form but I would like to know if there's a smart way to push back here. I feel like I'm in a relatively strong position given there's obviously no signed contract in place between myself and the firm.

Hope someone is able to offer some advice here!

Thanks!

[ULA]

Can you just confirm that prior to the meeting the solicitor did not disccuss any fees with you for the meeting?

Did you receive a client care letter or terms of business detailing a fixed fee for the meeting and subsquent advice prior to the meeting?

How was the meeting left - where you under any impression that the solicitor was going to be working on your matter?

[rajan]

Thanks for your reply.

That's correct that the solicitor did not discuss any fees with me prior to the meeting.

We didn't receive a client care letter or terms of business detailing a fixed fee for the meeting. The draft agreement I received a couple of weeks after the meeting was clearly written as if it should've been sent to us, and agreed to, prior to the meeting taking place.

The solicitor did say they would recap the meeting and send us what had been discussed but there was no indication that any further work would be taking place in addition to this.

[ULA]

My suggestion would be that in the first instance you should write back directly to the solictor stating that at no time prior to the appointment were you provided with a client care letter or terms of business in regard to the cost of an initial meeting with a subsequent note providing a recap of the meeting. Given that this did not happen you attended the meeting in the belief that this was an initial "free of charge meeting" with a view that if you wanted to engage them as your solicitor on the matter, you would then confirm that you were prepared to "instruct" (important word) them following the meeting.

Dependent on the response that you get back if it is not positive you then need to request the firm's complaints procedure which should provide details of who you should direct your complaint to and you would then need to raise the issue with that individual. Their complaints procedure should provide details of the options you have if you are not satisfied with the outcome (they have up to 8 weeks to respond to a complaint) which in this instance would be the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint, www.legalombudsman.org.uk or telephone 0300 555 0333.

[rajan]

Thanks a lot for the advice here - this is much appreciated. I'll give this a go and hopefully this resolves the issue.

[islandgirl]

I had a similar experience. The meeting was written up with some very basic suggestions for tax planning by the solicitor. Some of these we had specifically said in the meeting we wished to avoid yet they were given as suggestions. We did not go forward but they tried to bill us (and to get us to sign up by just sending a quick email agreeing to their terms as we were on holiday at the time). We disputed everything and did not use them and did not pay.