Hi I have an issue with my ex wife’s solictors and my solicitor telling me different things, and it could get very expensive!

We were divorced a couple of years ago and I kept the house; she has a charge on it. After we were divorced I wanted to remortgage and raise a few quid to pay off Legal Aid, she said no, and we went to court on the basis that if I lost I would have to pay her costs – estimated then by my solicitor at c.£350.

We were both on Legal Aid at the time, and the court ruled in her favour. Oh well, there you go.

Her solicitors are now telling me I owe them nearly £3000 and if I want to go to court and argue about it it will likely cost me another £1000. My solicitor says they should be charging me at Legal Aid rates but they say no, its £200 an hour plus!

This is on top of the £18,000 I have repaid Legal Aid. What am I to do?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

This is not my area but my best guess answer , technically you don’t owe your wife solicitor anything the order is that you pay her costs so you owe her an indemnity . So you should pay what she agreed to pay to them if she was covered by legal aid then legal aid rates if not then private .

From your post I’m not 100% sure which costs are in issue is it the initial divorce or the application to remortgage? If the latter she may not have had legal aid.

This is on top of the £18,000 I have repaid Legal Aid

😯

Defo not my practice area, and I know naff all about Legal Aid or private client stuff, but there are some basic queries to be raised here:

we went to court on the basis that if I lost I would have to pay her costs – estimated then by my solicitor at c.£350.

Just to clarify…YOUR solicitor estimated HER solicitors costs prior to you heading off to court to be in the region of £350?

Something is not right there. Are you sure your solicitor didn’t miss a zero off? My chargeout rate is more than that per hour, I can’t imagine being able to even get to court for £350 never mind actually act on behalf of someone engaged in litigation. I’m not sure how cheap Legal Aid fees are, but that figure does sound rather low for even very minimal work, or maybe i’m just out of touch here.

If you proceeded on the basis that your solicitor advised you that the other side’s costs were not likely to exceed £350, and that figure was a completely unrealistic estimate, I would be having a word with the SRA/Legal Ombudsman at the moment.

Her solicitors are now telling me I owe them nearly £3000 and if I want to go to court and argue about it it will likely cost me another £1000.

Not sure of the timing applicable here, but generally you can ask the court for an assessment in respect of costs. If you are not prohibited from doing so, it would seem like a good idea here – ask your own solicitor (in fact, ask someone else!).

Crankboy’s point re costs on an indemnity basis – that is to prohibit HER from receiving more in costs that she is liable for to her own solicitor. I wouldn’t put it past some cowboys to produce a bill based on full rack rate if they thought they could get away with it though. There should be a paper trail of what SHE was liable to her solicitors for. If there is any ambiguity or something doesn’t look right (i.e. losing Legal Aid entitlement for no apparent reason and switching on to a higher charge out rate) – get on the phone to SRA/Legal Ombudsman.

There’s a number of issues here which need to be clarified, but I wouldn’t suggest your waste time doing it on here. Ask your solicitor for an explanation of why you are being faced with a bill which is 10 times the figure they suggested it was likely to be, if they can’t give you a good explanation and won’t fix the issue, then speak to the SRA/Legal Ombudsman or seek advice from another solicitor.

actually, i think i’ve mixed up the “indemnity principle” and costs awarded on an “indemnity basis”.

Crankboy’s point relates to the indemnity principle – that is to prohibit HER from receiving more in costs than she is liable for to her own solicitor (but check whether or not Legal Aid costs are exempt from this). Costs on an indemnity basis is something totally different and I have no idea what it is 🙂

thank goodness i don’t do Legal Aid work or my clients would be in real trouble 🙂

Thanks people. As I explained to her solicitors in my last letter the costs incurred by me for this little foray to court are less than £300 under legal aid (30 mins in court, travelling, waiting time and phone calls/letters)and this is he ballpark figure I would expect to be paying them. The issue is that they are trying to charge me full rate when my solicitor wasn’t, and we both had legal aid.

I’m quite happy to stand up to them if they are trying it on, but if my solicitor has it wrong then I will get shafted. The assessment of costs is going to cost me even more money!