a month to complain about a solicitor's bill?

[FelicityWits]

Hi

On my solicitor's bill it says I can dispute the bill within a month of the invoice. Is this the enforcable case or is it a limit the solicitor has placed on complaining/querying?

No idea but if you are considering complaining or querying why wait any longer than necessary? If you are unhappy why not do it immediately?

We have only recently discovered that the matters the bill pertained to were not dealt with (in our opinion), properly. At the time we believed we were being billed for necessary procedures.

You should dispute it even if it's more than a month old, but I don't think you can raise matters which are more than 12 months in the past.

Thankyou. Do I have to go through the solicitor's 'own' complaints procedure first? It seems to consist of writing to them, having a meeting if they think my complaint has merit and then waiting for their in-house verdict. Can I complain to the ombudsmen/law society alongside or do I have to go through that first?

Go via the solicitor initially. Law Society will expect you to do that anyway before they act.

According to our T&C let, which I think is pretty much universal, you have to give them a chance to sort the problem out beforeyou go to the ombudsman, which is fair enough. Chances are you'll get a discount.

Fairly sure you have to go through internal measures before external people will deal with you - keeps them from getting caught up with things that could be resolved internally.

Also, if you aren't happy with the work, it's not really disputing the bill. You should complain about the problems with the work, and list a refund/write off of some of the bill as the recompense you want.

HTH.

Thankyou that is very helpful. It's sort of disputing the bill and sort of disputing the work. I'll make a start on explaining my position to the solicior now. Much appreciate the advice.