Fees after initial free half hour, delay, and less than accurate work.

[grumpygrape]

I’m trying to help a neighbour (A) with an issue regarding her ex-partner and their children. I believe A has been sucked in by the ‘free half hour’ come on from a large practice of solicitors and is now facing a bill of almost £1,000 for sending a single email to her ex.

A isn’t worldly wise and is dyslexic. She had an initial phone discussion and approx. a week later the solicitor sent a draft of an email for them to send to A’s ex.

A asked me about this draft and I tried to give her some pointers to where the wording was, I felt, inappropriate (addressing the ex by his given name, referring to ‘access’ as opposed to ‘time with’ etc.’), was inaccurate, and didn’t seem to clearly reflect her views. Having seen the draft, I noticed the author is a paralegal. I asked Z if she knew what the solicitor/paralegal would be charging her, specifically if there was a fixed cost or hourly rate. She didn’t know; all she knew was the first half hour was free but realised she would have to pay after that. However, costs after the first half hour had not been discussed.

After A sending details of suggested changes to the first draft it took another week for the paralegal to respond with a second draft. Unfortunately, this draft had one sentence which was still inappropriate and grammatically didn’t make sense. It also included a threat that if ex didn’t comply with one request, A would deny him spending time with the children. This is something Z has always said she would not do unless there was a serious safeguarding issue.

The key issues A has with her ex are introducing the children to a very new partner and discussing finances with the children. Children are 7 and 10. He is also irregular with committing to and attending at pick up and drop off and has refused to use a coparenting app for calendar and communications.

A contacted the paralegal today and stated the changes she wanted to the second draft and asked what the current costs were. The paralegal later sent an e-mail stating £800 + VAT.

I have very little experience of dealing with solicitors on a commercial basis but I have checked various sources which seem to indicate the hourly rates for a paralegal are between £40 and £120 per hour, although I am aware the larger practices do charge up to £270 +VAT per hour. Sources also indicate solicitors should tell clients at their first contact what the hourly or fixed rate charges are likely to be.

Having delved into the solicitor’s’ website I find this specific paralegal’s hourly rate is £250 +VAT. The Family Solicitor in the practice charges £295 +VAT and the Director £350 +VAT. This is a large city in the Midlands/North but not London.

Does anyone have any advice I can give A ? She has unknowingly racked up a bill of almost £1,000 for an email which her ex could just ignore and which doesn’t have formal consequences. I feel she has been badly advised and served but as I wasn’t present at the initial consultation I can’t swear to any misdirection.

Me again !

@treeaspen – yes, my understanding is that CMS is based on his income but I suspect he’s not only as thick as two short ones but either consciously or subconsciously wants to stir and get the kids on his side.

I’ve now seen the Invoice and it’s very detailed, cleverly in multiples of 6 minute lots so they equate to 1/10th of the hourly rate (but I guess that’s standard).

However, there are some for an email I don’t think my neighbour ever had, and there are a couple of entries, albeit only 6 mins each, at £350 per hour, so not just the Solicitor’s rate but the Director’s rate…..

Neighbour wasn’t copied into the final email to him so she hasn’t even got proof it’s been sent !

The bill is now up to £895 +VAT

If they ever go to Court she will need at least a McKenzie friend but I’d prefer her to have a decent Family Solicitor. I have a few contact who might be able to point me in the right direction for good one.

@Needanadultgapyear Yup, I’ve been tryi ng to manage her expectations as to what can and can’t be enforced. I think this is one of the reasons she wanted a ‘strongly worded’ letter from a solicitor, to focus his mind. He’s unlikely to be any more legally savvy than her so might, just might, take notice of a communication from ‘someone in authority’.

@PsychoHotSauce yes, this is why I’m less than impressed with the paralegal not understanding their tone should/could have been more along the lines of ‘The expectations of organisations dealing with interests of children of separated parents are blah, blah, blah….’

@Gabbycat245 I think the document accompanying the invoice is what you would call the time ledger. As I said above, it’s allocated in multiples of 6 minutes, which I guess is for easy calculation (‘cos even I can do the maths involved in tenths of an hour !)

The first entries are for the Initial appointment (first 30 mins – free) and ‘total time 1 hour 10 minutes’ with a charge of 48 minutes. I keep trying to work that out on my fingers and toes and make 70 minutes less 30 minutes = 40 minutes so even if rounded up to 42 minutes is not 48 minutes but I’m just getting picky over £25 +VAT now, or am I ?

The ‘Fee Earner’ is listed as the Director (£350 =VAT)

Oh, shit, shit, shit, and bugger…..

She’s now found and forwarded to me an email sent to her the day after the initial consultation with, Information Letter (3 pages), Retainer Letter (8 pages), Terms and Conditions (19 pages), blah, blah, blah. Now I’ll have to go back to her and tell her she had all the information all along if she’d only read it, which I suspect she didn’t because the documents are long and wordy and I'd get bored with them even if it was for me.

I think she's just too naive and trusting for her own good.

I’m not sure if we would get anywhere with claiming the Dyslexia, that would be my last hope now I think.

I can only apologise for getting you all involved and thank everyone again for their time and information. At least I now know more about the Law Society and where to go for information.

I just wish she'd taken me up on my offer of help earlier.

@grumpygrape Can I PM you? Especially now you've found the docs

Yes, feel free. I'm only a freebie member can I get PMs or do I have to pay up ?

I'm a free member too, should be fine! I've just sent it

I’d also be surprised if you got anywhere with dyslexia now, especially as she could have disclosed this earlier and they could have provided adjustments accordingly. However, you may still get somewhere with a complaint. If you set out exactly why you aren’t happy and what has gone wrong, they may discount the invoice for her as a gesture of goodwill (and to basically make her go away!). As you’d be wanting a new solicitor anyway, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. May not work, but worth a try!

As an aside, billing in 6 minute ‘units’ is definitely very standard and nothing shady about this, it’s so that time can be tracked even for smaller tasks. Having said that, if the units don’t necessarily add up, I would query this as part of the complaint.

it looks as though the Director is the solicitor acting (or ‘fee earner’) on the case, as opposed to the family solicitor, hence the even more inflated costs. I assume this was mentioned on the terms and conditions etc though, as it should say the person responsible.

I hope your friend manages to acquire some better advice!

I think as your friend is vulnerable because of her dyslexia, as in it may take her longer to read and process information, she may get somewhere if she says the fees weren’t clear enough and she should have been provided with an estimate of costs verbally, but really if you go to a solicitor and ask them to do some work for you then you surely would be expecting to pay something, why didn’t she ask? I expect they would have explained to her that the email would have no legal standing but if she wanted to go ahead anyway they would do it. I wouldn’t complain about using first names instead of Mr Smith, that’s just a style issue and will seem petty. I echo PP, solicitors always charge in 6 minute increments, that’s totally normal, and the cheapest person should be doing the work, so the paralegal would draft and bill for the email but run it past someone more senior to advise on content and sign it off.