SOLICITOR'S BILL VERY UNREASONABLE

[Carlito05]

Hello, For the last 3 years I had this solicitor sorting out the division of properties between myself and my ex partner. She has taken a total of 5,000 pounds from me in the beginning until I had no more money to pay and she has agreed to work on my case with no money until it finished. We are in the final steps and she has issued me with a collection of bills/invoices totaling 130,000 pounds...Yeah 130,000 pounds. She has a while ago forced me to sign a declaration that I knew that the costs would be between 90,000 and 120,000 and I had to sign it because she said if I didn't she would drop the case and all the work would be lost and I wouldn't have anyone to represent me otherwise. I now have to sell the family home to pay her, not to say that she did not get what she has thought she would get from the deal and I feel really stressed because by the time I sell my home, pay the bank and pay her I will not have enough money to buy anything. I have 2 girls 13 and 15 and I have terminal cancer and I am really upset. I can't even get a mortgage. Can someone out there give me some guidance on how to try and get her bill reviewed? She is not a top lawyer, her office is shabby in a very poor suburb of London. I think with my money she will retire as I don't think she has ever seen this kind of money before in her entire life. Please help someone.

I think you should talk to Citizens Advice Bureau. That bill does sound unnecessarily large, but I don't know how long she's been working for you and what kind of work was involved.

I have to beg every time for her to send me the bills. The bills are all over the place. We had a cost management hearing and the judge said she has overcharged a bill of 90,000 which should have been 54,000.
Does it mean I cannot challenge any of her old bills? This will be a disaster.

Your posts are very difficult to understand

What do you mean by 'We had a cost management hearing and the judge said she has overcharged a bill of 90,000 which should have been 54,000.'

Have you already argued the bills with her and had a hearing?

She has a while ago forced me to sign a declaration that I knew that the costs would be between 90,000 and 120,000

well if you signed that, surely you were expecting a bill of 90-120K and so would only be disputing the last 10K? Did being asked to sign that not make you rethink whether this would be worth doing

you need advice from CAB or another solicitor but you need to stop and think whether this is worth doing.

How much do you think is reasonable?

DON'T SHOUT

Read the info on the back of the bills about how to challenge them. If they are that big it might be worth engaging a costs draftsman to help you work out what you think is reasonable.

Did you phone up a lot and talk for a long time? Send lots of long letters and poorly sorted documents? How many hearings were there and did you instruct a barrister?

What is her hourly rate and how many hours has she billed for?