Ripped off by solicitor???????

[caron1968]

Last year I was involved in a road rage incident. I was assaulted and guilty party was convicted of the offence. I, according to the CPS not the police, was charged with a section 5 offence because of my defensive behaviour.
I employed a solicitor who advised me by phone to ask for an adjournment and get the prosecution papers which I duly did. I took the papers to the solicitor who in 15 minutes gave me advice, I duly instructed him to represent me at the next court appearance.
I arrived at court and sat in the waiting room for one and a half hours waiting to see my solicitor who I was informed was one of the other solicitors from the practice. Eventually the solicitor for the prosecution came out and told me that after a phone call and some emails all charges were to be dropped.

Obviously I was very relieved but AIBU in thinking that paying £600 was a bit steep?

I have never received any written confirmation from the solicitors and never got an itemised bill.

I feel as though I was right royally ripped off.

How many hours work do you think they did to see the matter come to a close? Because £600 sounds about right. Bear in mind partners in London firms will be on about £450 hourly rates...

That's a bit steep for one phone call and one visit, I think. Although they probably did a little work while you were not there. I would definitely query it and, if not satisfied, take it to their Ombudsman.

YABU to be complaining on here instead of acting like a grown-up and speaking to the solicitor in question to ask about the fees and get an explanation and the necessary information to decide whether to take the matter further.

What you have posted isn't anywhere near enough information for anyone to be able to tell how much work was done for those fees and whether they are reasonable or realistic. Also, you don't say what you were told beforehand about fees and costs.

You can complain to the SRA if you were not informed about costs in advance in the proper way. They are very strict about what client care letters and fee information must be given. But you need to go through the firm's own complaints procedure first.

emsyj

Thank you for your reply! As a grown up who has never had anything to do with the legal system, I asked on here first before going to the solicitor and looking like a dick. I was told £600 was the fee. But I expected a liitle bit more than 15 mins face time and one phone call and at the least a written confirmation of what they had done. I find it hard to believe that the odd phone call 15 mins face time and email amounts to £600. If it does then I am now more knowledgeable and will buy my 22month old daughter a set of legal text books instead of Beatrix Potter !!!!

They need to charge that to pay for the textbooks!

Sounds about right tbh.

Using solicitors a lot for various things do I find a bill of £600 surprising no I don't. Ask for an itemised bill from accounts to see where it went.

Wonder what the fine might have been if the case was not dropped and you were convicted?

The fine would be a lot less but you would have a conviction, which is what the OP was trying to avoid I guess.

Were you not given their terms and charges when they took your case on?

Sounds about right. As people have mentioned they have an hourly rate, a charge for telephone calls, a charge for attending your hearing, charges for considering your case.

If you don't think it's fair you can always contact The Law Society and ask for advice.

Did they not ask for your court costs to be reimbursed as you won????

Something not dissimilar happened to my DP. Bit of a road rage incident and female driver claimed DP had keyed her car which he vehemently denied (and he really is no the type). Half way through her evidence, which was shown to be totally untrue (she tried to claim she had seen him scratch the offside rear door with his key yet the only damage found was to the front offside door (at the time she was on her own in the car driving it). She then (rather improbably) claimed that when she got in the car in the pitch black at 7 that morning she had checked all round the car and seen no scratches (like you do) so he must have caused it) case thrown out and he was found not guilty.

It cost him £900 but they have asked for costs (which is still being considered).

Did they not ask for your court costs to be reimbursed as you won????

Something not dissimilar happened to my DP. Bit of a road rage incident and female driver claimed DP had keyed her car which he vehemently denied (and he really is no the type). Half way through her evidence, which was shown to be totally untrue (she tried to claim she had seen him scratch the offside rear door with his key yet the only damage found was to the front offside door (at the time she was on her own in the car driving it). She then (rather improbably) claimed that when she got in the car in the pitch black at 7 that morning she had checked all round the car and seen no scratches (like you do) so he must have caused it) case thrown out and he was found not guilty.

It cost him £900 but they have asked for costs (which is still being considered).

Did you get a client care letter with terms of business and an estimate of costs? Were you on an hourly rate or an agreed standard fee?

It sounds fairly reasonable to be honest. We generally do low-level magistrates' court cases on a fixed fee basis which would be about £450 but our private fees are low because we have a very low-income client base.

Was the hearing you attended with the solicitor a trial or was it effectively the first hearing, at which you would have entered a plea of guilty or not guilty?

If it was a trial then the solicitor would have had to prep the case fully. If it was a first appearance there would be minimal prep time but there would still be travel and waiting and attendance at court. While you were waiting the solicitor was probably trying to get the prosecutor to discuss the case with them (not always easy) and waiting for him to go back and forwards to the police officer or a more senior colleague to get the go-ahead to drop the case. All this is chargeable if you are paying on an hourly rate.

You are entirely within your rights to ask for a breakdown - I advised a friend to do just that recently after being landed with a bill several times what yours is - but I would anticipate it all being justifiable.

You should have asked for an itemised bill, although the charges do not seem excessive in the circumstances.

What hourly rate was on your client care letter? I struggle to get simple (non-Criminal matters) in for less that £500 (+Vat) as there is a lot of unseen admin type work connect with my and all,other areas of law. Sadly, clients only see a little bit of what we actually do.

Whatkungfupanda said. £600 for your reputation isn't bad. You would have felt better if they had spent ages explaining it to you, but the end result is important. £600 for adjourned first appearance, fair enough. But their firm may only get a couple of fees like that a month.

You are the sort of client that made me leave the legal profession, OP. "My solicitor got exactly the result I wanted, now the bastard wants me to pay the fee I agreed " Yes, how very fucking dare he

Agree with everyone else. As a solicitor in the city, I struggle to give a quote under 30,000. It adds up really quickly and there is a lot of work that goes unnoticed. This seems like a bargain to me, I'd actually recommend them to my friends. :)

Refuse to pay and let them take you to a county court. You may lose a few more quid but it will be fun watching the parasites squirm.

redbindy interesting view

The op received the correct advice and the case against her was appropriately defended. End result is OP did not receive a conviction. So what exactly did the solicitor do wrong?

I used to do a lot of this sort of work (although not much privately paid) when qualifying. Rates sound reasonable to me.

notdriwning put it so much better!

Thank you all for your replies.
Well it seems that a reasonable price was paid then.
If I had been convicted there would of been a chance of losing my job and professional registration.
Not being in the legal profession I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, kungfupanda paints a picture I was unable to see, as for
notdrwning I am sorry you feel this way but is not justifiable for an individual to question something they are not aware of?

The legal profession does have a reputation for charging astronomically high fees and are often being taken into account for some unfair billing practices. This does not alter the fact though that I appear to have been charged a fair rate for what is my future financial security and employment status.

Do you understand why the legal profession charge the fees they do? Those practicing certificates aren't printable off the Internet you know dear

I do understand but like overpaid premiership footballers there is a limit to what someone is paid which is commensurate with their skills.