Employment Lawyer fee

[cinderella1897]

Hi - I was dealing with a reputed law firm specialising in employment law for a work matter and the lawyer charges $$$ per hour. My work matter is closed but I am not happy with the whole experience with the lawyer. For example delaying not responding to my emails citing that their accounts dept are yet to confirm reciept of payment, sending final invoice to my employer for reimbursement of lawyer fee without sending me invoices first to review although I had asked them to send them to me first, not responding to urgent and important matters unless I kept following up although they were aware I was under anxiety medication and making me super anxious, trying to rack up the lawyer fee costs by jumping to respond to email addressed to paralegal instead of the laywer and that too just 4 or 5 words in the initial invoices for which they charge it as 6 mins for example 'I will revert asap on this' (although its mentoned in the enagement letter any work less than 6 mins will be charged as 6 mins and I was charged roughly around 70 pounds with VAT for such 4 letter word emails).

What can I do other than complaining to the lawyers manager and their complaints team as I am certain they would have overcharged me on the final invoice and they have already submitted them to my exemployer for reimbursement and I have not yet been sent the final invoice although matter was closed around a month back. Thanks.

You could go to the ombudsmen. You would need all of this as evidence.

I used a well respected firm earlier in the year and was also less than impressed. They didn’t want to push on certain matters and told me just to settle, when we did push I got much better terms. They were slow to respond to emails and gave some very dubious advice which would have left me in a very precarious situation. I think they also missed chances to improve certain terms and I was also extremely anxious and not in a position to push them on it.

I hope your employment issue has been resolved.

Thanks. Did complaining to the manager or their complaints team do anything? I always felt like the lawyer was acting in their own interest rather than mine and felt it was just too blatant and on my face to simply disregard my request to cc me on invoices, and even more to send it without sending on to me first. Everything that worked in my favour was something that I thought of and proposed to my lawyer than vice versa other than initial guidance provided.

I also think the outcome could have been a lot better if I stuck to my intial terms than lowering them based on my lawyers recommendation. I think they were more concerned that the offer might go off the table aka them loosing the revenue than getting me a better offer.

Sigh and yes my employment matter is resolved. I think my advise to anyone using a lawyer is that they are better off going for a cheaper experienced lawyer than an experienced expensive lawyer; but they need to their own due diligence.

@cinderella1897 i didn’t make a complaint regarding the employment lawyer (the whole process was so exhausting I was just glad it was over).

Not to make it sound like I use solicitors a lot (because before last year I’d never used them except when buying and selling houses) but I did have to employ a solicitor last year to represent me in a small claims case. They were hired through my insurance company and I can’t describe just how terrible they were ( huge mistakes in the paperwork, going on holiday without giving me notice on deadline days for filing documents so I had to do it in a panic, completely misunderstanding orders from the court, didn’t assess other parties’ finances correctly so although I won I got nothing, and mistaking the insurance payout to cover costs as payment from the other party). They were absolutely dreadful. I did write a complaint to the company but they pretty much ignored it.

I read terrible reviews online and found ombudsmen documents that showed complainants had won against them though. Again, the whole process had been so terrible I didn’t have the energy left to take it further.

A small stand against them but poor reviews online do hurt them.

@cinderella1897 regarding your solicitor being worried the offer would go off the table, mine was exactly the same (I wonder if we used the same one?!?). I really had to push to get them to fight back!

If the ombudsman is anything like the financial ombudsman you will have to go through the original firms complaints process first. If they ignore your complaint or you are dissatisfied with their response you then open a complaint with the ombudsman. The process is slow (too many complaints not enough staff) and you need to keep track of the deadlines they set and follow up if deadlines pass with no action from the law firm. (Our complaint to the FO took 18 months to complete with chasing every 6 weeks or so........)

Thanks I intend to escalate if it goes way beyond what i think it should be as its just been a terrible experience. Glad its all over and you dont have to deal with them again.

Thanks, I am hoping I dont have to escalate within the lawyers firm and the costs are kept reasonable. If not its again putting up a fight.

Why are you bothered about the bill when the employer is paying it? Was it relating to a settlement agreement?

A six minute unit is standard by the way however muchnof the six minutes is used.

Hi there - Yes, in relation to SA. My employer wont be paying whatever amount the lawyers quote in the final bill. Theres a limit thats been agreed and going by experience with the lawyer, I am certain they will overcharge on the invoices and then refund me if anything is left from the amount that my employer paid them. Worse of all is that I am yet to be informed what the final bill is even after 1 month of the matter closing out but the lawyers firm sneakily sent my employer the final bill although I had asked them to send the invoice to me first and cc me in matters re invoice and payments to my employer.

It seems they are all the same. Some better and some worse and very few good ones.