Solicitor bill

[worriedandannoyed]

Hi I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me.

I'm going through a divorce, my solicitor has been difficult to get hold of most of the time. Is this usual? Every document I receive from them it's late with an excuse.

I've had two bills. The first one itemised file time (fine with this as seemed accurate) and number of emails/letters in and out. Now I've counted up the number of emails in/out and the number was a lot higher then I had record of. Obviously I have no idea how many emails my ex's solicitor has sent in but I assume I would get a copy of these. I tried to get a breakdown but they never came back to me.

In the end I just paid it to keep moving with the divorce. The next bill again I've been charged for over 20 emails/letters but probably only have a record of ten at the most. I'm reluctant to keep paying when they can't give me an accurate breakdown of what each correspondence was for/to.

Is this usual practice?

Thank you

It’s not usual to itemise each beyond giving a simple tally. I send clients copies of emails from the other side if necessary but not it’s not always necessary.

If you have queries simply ask them who the missing emails were from/to.

If you want them to send to you all incoming communications however banal they are I’m sure they can do that but your bill is likely to be bigger.

Part of the problem is that many solicitors record in minimum units of 6 mins, which means that a 2 line incoming email is charged out at one-tenth of the solicitor’s hourly rate. My firm is different as we charge in units of one minute. That means a one or two line email often costs my client 1/60th of my hourly rate.

@Collaborate thanks for your insightful reply.

I appreciate how charging by time etc works as I work in a similar industry. They have a set charge for each incoming and outgoing letter/email, it's just the number on the invoice seems over double the amount I was aware of.

I queried my first bill and never got a response so I just paid it. This bill is for over £1,000 and covers a few months where very little has actually happened.

I think it's also how unavailable the solicitor is that has also raised alarm bells. I think I should have had my decree nisi at the beginning of December but they've not passed it on to me yet. Is this also usual?

It's just a worry that I need them to help me with my financial settlement and they seem to miss so many details that are quite important

The problem is if they sent you a copy of every piece of correspondence they receive your bill would be even higher. Those ten pieces you haven't seen copies of, for example. If they sent them to you then there would be another 10 emails on their bill.