Solicitors fee's

[Peter101]

We have for the last year been using a solicitor to sort out my wife's late mothers estate. There are a few other matters being dealt with also in connection with this. Before this whole process we asked for an estimate and were given one. Anyway a year down the line that original estimate has more than doubled. Bills keep coming in. In the original estimate it states that we would be notified of any increases. Which we have not. My wife has written to the solicitor to ask for a breakdown of work that has been carried out, as we feel the charges are excessive. My wife is actually acting on behalf of her father who suffers from Alzheimer's (She has power of eterny). Her father can easily pay the bills, but I feel the solicitor is taking advantage, and he is being fleeced. And we obviously want to protect his interests.

We have a feeling that the solicitor will not pass on the breakdown of charges we have requested. My question is, does the solicitor have an obligation to give us this breakdown?

Also, if a solicitor makes a 10 minute phone call, are they in their rights to round it up to half an hour? or should they just add 10 minutes to their bill?

Thanks for any help.

[Eric Mc]

You can ask for the breakdown and most solicitors will endeavour to give you some sort of reply.

As an accountant when I worked for various firms, I have been asked to do this. It is an extremely tedious job to do but is usually helped if the solicitor's invoices were as detailed as possible when originally issued. Invoices which only state vague terms such as "professional services rendered" are bound to eventually prompt the client to query the fees being charged.

Most professionals charge on an hourly basis (broken down into 15 or even 10 minute "units"). A qualified solicitor's charge-out rates could easily exceed £200 per hour so ten minutes drafting and checking a letter will cost the client around £35 plus VAT at least.

Best of luck.

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 6th February 10:48

[Peter101]

Eric Mc said:

You can ask for the breakdown and most solicitors will endeavour to give you some sort of reply.

As an accountant when I worked for various firms, I have been asked to do this. It is an extremely tedious job to do but is usually helped if the solicitor's invoices were as detailed as possible when originally issued. Invoices which only state vague terms such as "professional services rendered" are bound to eventually prompt the client to query the fees being charged.

Most professionals charge on an hourly basis (broken down into 15 or even 10 minute "units"). A qualified solicitor's charge-out rates could easily exceed £200 per hour so ten minutes drafting and checking a letter will cost the client around £35 plus VAT at least.

Best of luck.

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 6th February 10:48

Thankyou.

What is making us suspicious is that in the past we have used our solicitor for a complex problem regarding planning permissions etc, he charges £300 per hour, yet we never felt he took the micky with his charges, his bills always came in much less than what we anticipated. He is a very to the point type of guy, some may say slightly rude, as in he would send brief 2 line e-mails that were short and to the point, thus saving us money. My wifes fathers solicitor charges £150 per hour and seems to faff, the bill so far is more than what we paid our solicitor for a much more complex bit of work. I feel the bill is higher than it should be due to her incompetence and perhaps lack of skill in doing her job. So this is why we want a breakdown and not just 'Professional services'.

[Eric Mc]

I usually find that once the client starts asking for detailed breakdowns, which, as I said are actually quite difficult to do as it usually means trawling through old time-records, charge sheets and Work in Progress printouts, it usually means that the relationship between the professional and the client has broken down.

The solicitor also resents having to do it as it means he is getting bogged down in non-productive time. Researching old bills and time records takes far more time than the work that generated that old bill in the first place - and that time can't be charged.

Does this solictor show precisely the work carried out on each invoice raised or are the descriptions rather vague?

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 6th February 11:55

[Peter101]

Eric Mc said:

I usually find that once the client starts asking for detailed breakdowns, which, as I said are actually quite difficult to do as it usually means trawling through old time-records, charge sheets and Work in Progress printouts, it usually means that the relationship between the professional and the client has broken down.

The solicitor also resents having to do it as it means he is getting bogged down in non-productive time. Researching old bills and time records takes far more time than the work that generated that old bill in the first place - and that time can't be charged.

Does this solictor show precisely the work carried out on each invoice raised or are the descriptions rather vague?

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 6th February 11:55

The descriptions are very very vague, just something along the lines of 'Services provided' no breakdown at all. Everyone else gives breakdowns, i.e.garages, etc, I dont see why solicitors dont.

[Alonso]

http://www.lawscot.org.uk/Public_Information/using...

Have a read at this....!

[Peter101]

Alonso said:

http://www.lawscot.org.uk/Public_Information/using...

Have a read at this....!

Thats very interesting, but it's Scottish law, I am not sure if it would be the same as English law.

[Eric Mc]

Peter101 said:

Eric Mc said:

I usually find that once the client starts asking for detailed breakdowns, which, as I said are actually quite difficult to do as it usually means trawling through old time-records, charge sheets and Work in Progress printouts, it usually means that the relationship between the professional and the client has broken down.

The solicitor also resents having to do it as it means he is getting bogged down in non-productive time. Researching old bills and time records takes far more time than the work that generated that old bill in the first place - and that time can't be charged.

Does this solictor show precisely the work carried out on each invoice raised or are the descriptions rather vague?

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 6th February 11:55

The descriptions are very very vague, just something along the lines of 'Services provided' no breakdown at all. Everyone else gives breakdowns, i.e.garages, etc, I dont see why solicitors dont.

Some do, some don't.

I've seen the same in the accountancy world. Accountants who give detailed statements usually keep their clients longer and have far fewer disputes with their clients ove fees.

[Alonso]

Yes Scotts law is different but the "practice" is the same... I use HBJGW who act on my behalf between their English and Scottish office's... I don't however get a seperate scottish version of their fee account. I insist on quotations these days and generally get them. If a fee note arrived and it was twice what they quoted, I simply wouldn't pay without an explanation and detailed account. If your wife has power of attorney then she is entitled to challenge their fee. Also see below

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/payi...

[Peter101]

Thanks guys, great help. We don't really mind if we fall out with this solicitor as the job is done and we wont be using them again. They are a very old fashioned type of setup, with most of their clients being fairly old, well off and don't question what the solicitor tells them from what we can see. We didn't choose to use them, they were my wife's parents solicitors. I hate the idea of companies taking advantage of their customers because they are old and don't believe a solicitor would pull the wool over their eyes.