just got bill thru after an long drawn out pain in the arse. long story short.

turned out about a third of the way thru the solicitor was a temp and so case changed hands. paid up to then for services supplied but then numerous calls to/from and various letters having to get resent to confirm or correct previous solicitors actions or even to confirm/reconfirm them . so time / money wasted there

was told a bit back that only a bit left to do so would estimate new costs to bo 100/150 plus vat but it turns out its over 600 plus vat plus the remainder of the balance

hes said he thinks it not appropriate for us to pay the full amount so would reduce it . but it turns out when you go thru the maths hes only reduced it by 29 pounds and it way over what i believe it should be

do i have any come back at all or do i have to suck it up ;-(

ta

Of course you do – just like any other service. Ask to see time sheets and ask them to fully justify their bill.

Law Society have an ombudsman I think.

sound just wasnt sure how it worked . i cant believe the went on in the letter about it not being appropriate to charge the full amount and then knock less than 30 quid off ;-(

i'll probably get billed for challenging in it lol

Mick, look at the back of the bill and read the small print as it will tell you what you need to do to challenge it. If it's for non-contentious work (e.g. selling a house) you will be able to apply for it to be assessed by the Law Society within a certain amount of time. They should also be sticking to any estimates/quotes they give you unless there are good reasons why the costs have increased, and they have to have warned you about these. And they can't charge you for investigating a complaint.

Lawyers don't – as a rule – like to sue their clients for non-payment of bills.

So, go back and say you're not happy with it, and offer an amount you would be happy to pay. Then agree the amount you'll pay and you're done.

If it does become difficult, then you can go through the Law Society, but in the meantime remember that (1) you're trying to pay what you think is a fair price for the work done and (2) the lawyer is trying to make a living (though if looks like he's trying to make a killing, then get the boot in).

(I don't think I do a deal where the fees – even pre-agreed fixed fees – aren't queried at the end. The worst was a project I worked on where our original fee quote was £250k, but we billed around £10m. I believe there was a bit of a "discussion" at the end….)

yes you can ask them to justify the costs and apply to have them assessed. The solicitors are obliged to explain this to you.

But re check your bill you i belive are only disputing the profit costs ie the money going to the solicitor . on many occasions the bill also contains all the fees the solicitor has paid out to others on your behalf known as dispersments.the solicitor cannot reduce that element for you. For example a typical conveyancing quote would be £250 profit costs plus vat plus stamp duty plus local authority searches plus land registry fees plus bank fees.

I agree with OMITN. Talk to them about it first, Law Society or whatever as a last resort. If you explain the whole situation and can show them which costs you think were unreasonable then you should be able to come to some sort of agreement.

If you really think they're having your leg up then try the official complaint route.

Hope it works out. I am having fun with a bad estimate on a project that is over spent at the moment (I didn't set the budget) and it is just a matter of finding a compromise that everyone is least unhappy with.

Good luck

You can, a friend of mine felt overcharged, he challenged it, he got a lot off the bill.

As with all professional services you can query it and state your case. Best way is do that first, law society is a last resort.

My mate is a solicitor and he does all my work for me. We barter as well so I do work for him. He did some stuff recently for me when i was havig a rough time of it. I pestered him for a bill and duly got one. Everything listed completely with time assigned to it, time total at bottom, cost, GST, total then a "Variation for mates rates" which was – the whole total with a balance to pay – zero. Nice boy. Left a bottle of top wine on his doorstep, rang the bell and ran away cos I knew he was having 'adult time' with his missus 😉