demand payment in advance for instructing counsel? I'm involved in a negligence claim (against another solicitor, god help me) and my solicitor has just told me, oh by the way, you've got to pay us 1000 pounds in five days time so that we can instruct counsel and get the claim in in time. Until this point we have mostly been paying their invoices roughly monthly. Is this standard practice? They claim it's their firm's policy.
TIA