Can solicitors do this?

[samosamo]

I retained a litigation lawyer. He just wasn't listening to me and what I wanted; he sent the other side that went against my instructions, and was pushing for me to accept an agreement that would cause me inconveniences abd would benefit the other side.

So, I asked him to stop working on the matter.

He then sent through a bill for £6k. The settlement he wanted me to accept was for £5k. I asked him for the breakdown of his fees. He responded that he doesn't take note of his time spent as such, but can make some estimates. This has come back at £13k now.

I want to also add that along the way I asked him twice for an update on where u stood with his fees abd he did not respond.

I feel blindsided abd quite bad about this.

Does his conduct contravene regulations, or is is unusual or bad practice? I work in a clinical role and if I acted comparably it would be deemed unprofessional, but I just don't know whether it's the same for lawyers?

Where do I start with getting an idea of whether this is bad practice and if so what I can do, please??

I'm a solicitor. Your complaint is more about the lack of transparency and the failure to keep you updated regarding costs.

He is part of a firm and so complain to the firm about requiring a breakdown. Unless it is a very small practice (or he is a one man band) they are likely to use time recording software or if not they should use manual timesheets.

However... £5k doesn't sound like its out of proportion for the type of work you are describing. His charge out rate is likely to be in the region of £250 an hour plus vat if he's a mid level regional based lawyer. £5k is less than three days' work.

Definitely make a complaint - they should provide you with a formal complaints process if you ask. My solicitor presented me recently with a £2800 bill, which was a bit of a surprise because imo they had barely done anything. I asked for a breakdown of costs, and they sent a timesheet that was full of pieces of work I had not asked for, duplicate work, work I had asked for but they had not completed, emails and phone calls to people not related to my case. It had gone above the agreed cap, there had been no regular update in costs incurred as agreed at the outset, and to cap it all off they declared they could no longer work with me but declined to say why. I had been recommended them by a relative who used to be a partner, he was shocked at the bill and the conduct and said I should definitely pursue a complaint. I did, and the bill was reduced to £900 (which still seems a lot for doing something I could have done myself for £200 but thought a solicitor would make the job easier!)

Solicitors managed to drop below traffic wardens on my list of ‘professions I respect’ as a result of this!

The settlement he wanted me to accept was £5k. The bill he sent is £13 inc vat.

This 7mis on top of the £5k i already paid him and just wrote off for the first phase. So in total he wants £18k.

First port of call is to ask for a narrative breakdown of the bill, which should give you a line by line of what work he’s charging for. If he can’t provide that (and I am astounded that as a litigator who would have to account to the court for his costs if he was trying to recover them from the other side in a claim, even if in this particular case there wasn’t scope for recovery, he is not recording his time properly) then ask for his firm’s complaint process and follow that. The fact he’s not time recording but said in the engagement letter he would charge in 6 minute units is also

If you don’t get an outcome from the firm’s complaint process then escalate to the legal ombudsman or SRA.

There is a process for challenging fees charged to you, which is an own client costs assessment but there will be more fees involved in this, whereas you shouldn’t be charged for them dealing with a complaint.

He started off charging me £250 ph, but as he moved firms his fee increased to £360 ph. He told me not to worry about fees on the engagement letter as he'd ensure his moving firm etc didn't cost me any more. As he'd presented the last bill saying 'my fees are xxx, but to you xxx' I of course believed he'd do this again. But because I've just asked him to stop work as things are going so badly he hasn't stuck to that. This part he only said on the phone, more than once, so that can't be supported by email im afraid.

Ugh.

Ah ok well the vat is irrelevant. He has to charge that and he doesn't keep it. I thought you meant £6k in total (i.e £5k plus vat). So if its £13k then that's circa £10,900 plus vat and if its litigation then I would imagine some of that will have been court fees?

It's impossible to say whether it's reasonable or not for the work that has been done. You need to get out your engagement letter and follow the complaints process set out in the letter. Someone other than your lawyer will then check out the file. It might not have been charged on a time spent basis (for example it might have been fixed fees for various stages of the work) but it is still likely to have been time recorded for the purposes of internal records.

Litigation is unfortunately one of those areas where costs can spiral since you are not solely in control of the process, but he should still have kept you updated.

I have the line by line. I'll now ask for the complaints process.

There should be a paragraph in the engagement letter which sets out the complaints process.

In aware costs can spiral, thats fair enough. Thats why I asked for the updates that he never provided...

I'm not the type of person to just want to spend whatever on litigation to make a point (though when your neighbour has spat all over your garden the temptation is there).

There are no court costs involved. The breakdown is a lot of emails and considering emails. A lot of consideration. He is very verbose. I did start asking him to just respond to me in bullet points as his emails were so long.

I'm thinking this new bill has been inflated over £10k so he can take to court and recover costs if I don't pay. As if I'd have a chance against a litigation lawyer? I'm so low on trust right now.

It depends what you want out of this. If you want to challenge or potentially reduce your bill then the legal ombudsman is the route to take. You need to have gone through the firm's complaints procedure first.

If you consider he has broken the code of conduct them it's the SRA NOT the law society. They may consider disciplinary action. The law society is the representative body for solicitors.

Complaining to the SRA will not get you any money back or off your bill.

You can complain to both organisations at the same time.

If it helps then the chances are that he hasn't done anything dodgy. Whilst the general public paints us in a poor light the vast majority of solicitors go to great lengths to ensure we are whiter than white since we are very closely regulated. It simply isn't worth our while to do anything underhand even if we were that way inclined since we can be struck off and then have no livelihood.

But of course he might be appalling at admin and billing - a lot of solicitors are since we prioritise the actual legal work.

Thank you

Hi all,

I replied and set out my stall. They came back saying they'll accept £7k, or I stick by my offer which is half that and they reserve the right to take me to court.

I looked up the SRA code of conduct which clearly says the bill shouldn't come as a surprise to me (given the solicitor first asked for a sum and then doubled it when I asked for information on the items which he has still only estimated, I believe it came as a surprise even to him!)

The code of conduct also says the solicitor should keep my circumstances in mind. I repeatedly told him I didn't want his bill to exceed the settling offered (it does by a long way). He clearly paid no attention to that abd also ignored my requests for a fees update part way through.

We agreed a strategy and draft email to other side and i clearly spoke about what I didn't want to include, but in the actual email to the other side he included exactly what I didn't want. His strategy which went against mine actually resulted in them reducing their offer by 20%. So he clearly went against my instruction by stealth to the detriment of my claim. Another breach of the code of conduct.

I want to stick by my offer and I genuinely feel he's messed up my chances and left me in a worse position than when I retained him.

What do you think given the above? After I go through a complaints process via the named partners will they really want to take me to court over £7k (Well, £3.5 as I'm offering to pay £3.5)?

hi

have you accepted the 5k offer? or have you turned this down and asked him to no longer represent you?

you may find the bill reduces if you accept the offer.

sounds like you in a crappy place. however property disputes are costly, often leave no one happy and are not based on justice.

If you have the resources available, then you can carry the cost and challenge it on merit, if it will stretch your finances, would you then be better settling ?

Not accepted the 5k offer from neighbours. They want me to also agree to putting in a new fence which includes a gate so that they can come into my garden at any time to fix their property. I'm not agreeing to that. They keep damaging my property and spat all over my garden. They are as heinous as ever. The simple caution they received did not stop them.

Eeeek. How will it stretch my finances to stick to my offer of £3.5k to the solicitor? He acted against my instructions which worked out badly for me and separately ran up a bill while ignoring my request for a fees update. In my heart I want to pay him nothing. But logically I know it's better that I do.

I'm thinking that as a litigation lawyer could take on this small claim without breaking the smallest of sweats. But will he want to go through the firm's complaints procedure and take it to the SRA and then explain himself yet again to a small claims judge? Over £3.5k?

As a litigation lawyer he could..

I think you'd be better off taking this to the legal ombudsman. They can order the solicitor to reduce your bill. The SRA cannot do this.

I don't believe the SRA would consider this passes their assessment threshold test for consideration of a regulatory sanction.

You need to take this through the firm's complaints process first.

To everyone recommending the SRA. Just to make you aware they are completely unfit for purpose and will almost certainly not help you in any way, read all the complaints on TrustPilot about them and how they have behaved about very serious breaches of the 'Principles'. They are currently being reviewed because they just aren't fit for purpose. After my experience with them I feel that solicitors are virtually unregulated in this country, it's just no-one realises it.

Thanks all.

I don't really expect much from the SRA, just trying to gauge whether lawyers care about complaints made to the SRA.

I'm a professional and a complaint to my regulatory body would be a massive headache.