Solicitors - advice please!

sandralovescats

I am in dispute with an employer and they are in Breach of Employment Contract.

I contacted a local solicitor by email requesting a no-win, no-fee arrangement.

I attended for one 50 min interview. He suggested an Employment Tribunal, in order that I could keep my job.

He sent me the forms to sign to allow him to do the work, with a request for an interim payment of £400.

Then I got an email saying he wanted £600 as an interim payment.

I completed the forms for my household insurance cover, to underwrite the ET.

Then I get a bill from the Solicitor requesting payment - since it is not covered by the insurance - the bill is for £575.

He hasn't done anything yet! He has charged for 3 letters to my employer, which to my knowledge have not been sent, 3 letters to myself + £8 +vat x 3 for emails he has sent to me.

Surely this is not right?

I daren't make an appointment, write to him, or email him because the charges are just escalating.

In the middle of this the insurance company are saying that I can only claim for unlawful deduction of wages. The solicitor says plus Breach of Contract. We are nearing the three month deadline for the ET. The Solicitor says that I have a rock solid case and that my employers haven't got a leg to stand on.

Can anybody advise me please?

Astaroth

This is one of the risks of conditional funding (or no win no fee as it is most often known as).

Conditional funding works on the basis that they can claim their costs from the third party if they win the case - they wont take on cases where they dont feel there is a good chance of winning. The 2 main issues with this is that 1) if you do not win your case then whilst your solicitor will not charge you for their time the other side is entitled to claim their costs from you 2) if the solictor blames you for not winning the case (eg lying, withdrawing the claim, withholding information, failing to attend court etc) then they will charge you for their time too.

Clearly in this case they believe you have fallen into camp 2 - they have dedicated time to the case but as you have withdrawn the claim from them they want you to pay for it as they can no longer claim it from your employers. What you need to do is look at all the T&Cs that you signed up to - the legal advice cover on your home insurance that you evidently have may be able to help read through them to see if you are liable for his costs or not.

As to the price.... 1hr interview, 9 pieces of correspondence plus the generic costs of handling a case - £575 is certainly not as high as it could have been... generally however the hourly rate a solicitor can claim is governed my his seniority but is capped by the level of the case... you cannot get a £1500 an hour solicitor to try and claim £100 for a cut after tripping. Generally cost draftsmen deal with debating the geniune cost of work carried out by sols but the LE cover may be able to help again here.

I am not an employment law expert by any means and so even with the details of the case would be unlikely to say what the chances of success are. That said and done, the solicitor handling you under conditional funding would have only got paid if you won, the solictor handling it under your LE policy will get paid if you win or lose.... it does sound very much simply like a difference of professional opinion rather than ulteria motives

Bossyboots

Have you got a "client care letter"? If not, you should have and without it you have no formal agreement as to fees. You should have been given an hourly rate plus the costs for letters and telephone calls. You can ask for a detailed breakdown of the bill. Why were the letters not sent? If this was because things changed but the letters had still been prepared, then they have done the preparation work on them and can charge for them.

From what you have put, I can work out a bill of around £300 using high end charging rates.

You should not be charged for requesting or receiving a breakdown of every item on your bill. If is a disciplinary offence to overcharge and you do have some recourse if this has happened but you need the paperwork to prove it.

It also sounds to me as though you have moved away from a no win no fee arrangement so you need to sort out exactly what basis they are instructed on and this would have been in your client care letter.

sandralovescats

Thanks for the responses.

I haven't signed any agreement to anything yet. The solicitor said that they could not do any work on my behalf until I signed the forms. In that set of forms is the request for £400. Then they altered it to £600, then to a bill for £575 as I said - all in the space of one week!

Initially because the solicitor was going to try to keep my job for me, he advised going to ET for Unlawful Deduction of Wages + Breach of Contract. The solicitor said that the other party did not have a leg to stand on. Apart from anything else they ignored two Grievance Procedures I laid against them, and broke Employment Law into the bargain.

The legal expert for the Pru said I could only claim for Unlawful deduction of wages, even though the solicitor said otherwise.

I have no idea where I am, where I stand, what is going on, nothing.

Bossyboots

It is quite usual to request a payment on account when sending out the retainer letters so that in itself is not an issue unless you were expecting a no win no fee contract in which case I am not sure why you are being asked to pay something upfront. I suspect they altered it to £600 because someone has picked up that their time logging system shows that this is the level of costs already incurred and this has also initiated the bill. It is all normal practice production wise but what is important is the breakdown of the invoice you have received. If you continued to instruct them even without signing the forms to secure the retainer, this is implied acceptance. What at the hourly rates quoted and the item amounts for letters and calls. I suspect there is a (un) healthy dose of preparation lumped onto this bill which is what has pushed the figure up the amount charged.

sandralovescats

Thanks!

I understand about the £400 interim payment and I have no issue with that.

The solicitor still had not done any work on my behalf - only 3 letters to myself + emails - which were actually from his secretary.

How do I move forward with this?

I am going bankrupt on 20/11.

I wonder if you might be able to advise me with respect to this ET. If this goes to ET and I am awarded , for example, £20000, will the Official Receiver claim ALL of that payment of a proportion of it? If the OR will take 100% I am not pursuing the ET.

Thanks in advance!

Bossyboots

I don't know anything about bankruptcy and it might be an idea to start a new thread just to pose the question about how the OR will treat any money you get.

If you are sure that no work other than three letters was done on your file, then you need to query the bill. However there is also the first interview you had. Did you pay for that up front. If not then I would expect that they have billed you for that as well. There will also be preparation of the letters which is allowable as a separate item if the letter is complex or lengthy. If it is neither of those, then the standard letter price is chargeable.

I should also point out that they cannot charge for work the secretary does unless that work is specifically fee earning. Therefore, if the secretary just acknowledged your e-mail or answered a simple question, then it is likely to be an unchargeable item.

Ask the solicitors for a complete breakdown of every item they have charged for, including the unit rate and the time taken.

L_D_N

A couple of places where you can get some free advice about both situations:

a) contact The Law Society cosumer helpline (number is on their website). They will let you know the situation with your solicitor and how to resolve things without costing you. They will also let you know how to make sure it's all processed correctly. All their advice is free and they offer another level to take it to with the Law Society if it doesn't get sorted. They also let you know how the solicitor should be operating and charging.

b) a bit after the horse has bolted I know but contact your local citizens advice as they can offer a small number of free telphone calls with an employment law expert for you - they will tell you how they think your employer will react etc, all at no cost to you. You could ask your solicitor but obviously you have the fees to think of.

In my experience bigger companies will do whatever they can to avoid an ET as the costs involved just aren't worth it. They are more likely to make you an offer - but this will be an offer to leave the company. But I'm guessing you're not planning on staying anyway?

L

sandralovescats

LDN. Great advice. Thank you very much!

No, I am not not planning on working for them any longer, they have treated me abominably badly and I don't want to work for them at all.

Will see the CAB and get back to you

sandralovescats

Bossyboots, thanks for the advice.

I need to do some checking. I don't anything about the 3 letters the solicitor supposedly sent to my Employer. He did say he would send me copies , but hasn't done so. I should have heard from my Employer if 3 letters had been sent. I can't fathom what the three letters would be about.