Solicitors fees are well above quote and i havent signed anything!

nikkikitch

Hi

I employed a solicitor to handle an employment issue for me in January . He told me that he charged between £750-£1,500 maximum for my kind of case and usually got between 3-6 months salary as a compromise agreement. (it was for bullying in the workplace)

He told me he was confident he could get 3-6 months salary and £1,500 was unusual as a fee.

His management of my case was poor in my opinion, it took him days and days to respond to important emails and he was never available to speak to on the phone.

It took him 4 months to reach an agreement and i only ended up with just less that 2 months salary! He is trying to charge me £1750 for his work, which consisted of 3 conversations with my employer, one letter and a few amendments to the actual agreement.

I dealt with his assistant more than i did him and on the breakdown of costs he's tried to charge me for every single phone call, even when i only spoke to his assistant briefly.

He has been paid £500 towards his fees by my employer as part of the agreement which i honestly think is substantial enough after how he handled my case! I didnt work for 6 months, it took him 4 of those to resolve the case so you can imagine, i got in to a lot of debt and am trying to recover very slowly.

Im happy to pay him a further £250 which takes it up to the bottom end of his quote, but hes threatening legal action.

If i havent signed anything and he doesnt have my address, can he actually do anything about it!?

Just to be clear, im not trying to 'get out' of paying him for the service that i think he provided, but what i was promised and what i actually got is very different.

Can someone advise?

Thank you

Gordon_Hose

Do you have the quote in writing from him?

nikkikitch

No, it was all done over the phone! I didnt receive a written quote or terms of service, he never even asked for my address! All very shot gun.

FireWyrm

I think you're up a creek really. You should always have a written quote and from my experience of employment lawyers, they usually give you a breakdown of exactly what was charged and what it was for. Unfortunately, in employment cases, you have to pay your own way since there's no concept of a 'no win no fee'. You'll have to pay, or make a complaint to the oversight body.

saverbuyer

You should have been provided with a breakdown of fees when your solicitor agreed to take on the case for you. You can and should complain to the senior partner of the firm, explain you didn’t receive a breakdown of fees and give details of the phone conversations. Tell them that the maximum fixed fee as discussed was X but you have been charged Y.
If this is not resolved to your satisfaction you can bring the complaint to the Law Society. It’s likely they will reduce the fees. It can be an expensive process to go through.

nikkikitch

But surely that works both ways in that he has no record of his original quote so essentially he cant just charge me what he feels like?
Its actually his firm so theres no one to complain to

FireWyrm

...and that's why solicitors are generally considered to be fine upstanding pillars of society....

poppasmurf_bewdley

Tell him that if he doesn't moderate his charges, you will complain about him to The Law Society.

http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/redressscheme.law

Hope this helps.

billinghamfan

It's actualy the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) who you need to complain to, if you write to the Solicitor in question disputing his/her fees and then if you don't get a descent response go to the SRA. At the bottom of the solicitors letters there should be a SRA number you will need this.

FireWyrm not all solicitors are bad.

poppasmurf_bewdley

billinghamfan wrote: »

It's actualy the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) who you need to complain to, if you write to the Solicitor in question disputing his/her fees and then if you don't get a descent response go to the SRA. At the bottom of the solicitors letters there should be a SRA number you will need this.

According to The Law Society, you need to complain to The Legal Ombudsman, which is where the web address I gave directs you.

The SRA is if you want to complain about a solicitor that has worked for someone else.

billinghamfan

No as the solicitor has breached at least one of the SRA principles
http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page#when-report-sra
Therefore you should report them to the SRA after you have written to the solicitor to make your initial complaint.