Solicitors' case loads - what are they like?

Moonraker71

I'm purely being curious here. Does anyone know on average how many cases a conveyancing solicitor will have on their plate at any one time? For eg, a city centre solicitor (but non-London) in a booming property market?

Just interested as mine seems very slow (don't they all) and when I was in the office last week to sign draft contracts she had 24 case files on her desk and said that was what she was working on at the moment. No idea is this is average or if she's ridiculously overworked.

Tancred

Moonraker71 wrote: »

I'm purely being curious here. Does anyone know on average how many cases a conveyancing solicitor will have on their plate at any one time? For eg, a city centre solicitor (but non-London) in a booming property market?

Just interested as mine seems very slow (don't they all) and when I was in the office last week to sign draft contracts she had 24 case files on her desk and said that was what she was working on at the moment. No idea is this is average or if she's ridiculously overworked.

I'm currently experiencing long delays with my conveyancer (a legal executive) as the house I'm buying has a communal management charge agreement and he wanted to see all the paperwork, infact he insisted on it. This has already delayed exchange by three weeks and counting! :mad: All I care about is how much do I need to pay? The vendor hasn't made things easier by not presenting this information at the beginning. The trouble is that I'm already renting one month longer than I intended and the end of August is drawing closer and closer.

It seems that lawyers don't give a toss about the needs of their fixed price clients. T&M clients come first because that's where the biggest earnings are.

AnnieO1234

Hi,

This is a few years out of date from before crash but I would suggest the twenty four were files she was immediately working on that day. Anywhere between 100 and 300 would be more like a "caseload" but would include instructions that were weeks/months away.

If she was aiming to do 24 completions or even exchanges on the same day, that seems a little OTT but with the way residential conveyancing has been shedding people it wouldn't surprise me.

fart

How long's a piece of string.

DRP

fart wrote: »

How long's a piece of string.

how wide is a normal distribution?

fart

Curves and stuff probably.

WestonDave

24 files with some form of action required in a day is pretty standard out of a case load of 200+ that are active. Not all of them will require any instant action - if you send out a letter it won't arrive until tomorrow and at best you won't get a response until the day after - longer if its to the other solicitor and requires them to get information from their client.

The delays occur simply by virtue of the number of people involved and the fact that few of them turn things round on the same day as received. If you send out a letter to the other solicitor which requires information from their client its going to be day 1 send, day 2 arrive at other solicitor and send on to client, day 3 client recieves and sends answer back, day 4 arrives back at solicitor and sent on to first solicitor, day 5 arrives and is sent on to you for your information/comment, day 6 arrives back with you. Add in a weekend or two, and something being left for a day before sending it on or responding and its easy to see why getting an answer to a simple enquiry can take 2 weeks. Often it needs to be done hard copy via post to be legally binding - you don't want to be relying on a passed on phone message over something vital like whether there are any neighbour disputes so anything that needs to be formal takes time. Obviously discussing completion dates can be done by phone or email so can be quicker.

Moonraker71

AnnieO1234 - wow that's interesting. I hadn't really thought of it like that. It must be a nightmare job really, high levels of juggling skills needed.

Moonraker71

WestonDave - yes, those timelines fit with my experience. I take my hat off to them really. I would hate to manage all those different strands and deal with irate people all day. But it's still bl009y frustrating though!

moneyistooshorttomention

...and then there's the extra checking some of us will do if we have gone to a firm of solicitors (rather than conveyancers) to make sure we got a "proper solicitor" doing this for us....only to discover when we met them that they are a legal executive (and no-one had told us it wouldn't be a solicitor).

Cue extra checking by some of us (probably creating extra work) because we've got a "lower level" person than we expected working on our case:(

Well I do anyway (so I expect I'm not the only one) and wish I'd known in advance that I needed to ring round solicitors to make sure it would definitely be a solicitor doing the work:(. Not best pleased...and did wonder why I was being quoted not that much more than a conveyancer would have charged:o. DUH!

Tancred

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

...and then there's the extra checking some of us will do if we have gone to a firm of solicitors (rather than conveyancers) to make sure we got a "proper solicitor" doing this for us....only to discover when we met them that they are a legal executive (and no-one had told us it wouldn't be a solicitor).

Cue extra checking by some of us (probably creating extra work) because we've got a "lower level" person than we expected working on our case:(

Well I do anyway (so I expect I'm not the only one) and wish I'd known in advance that I needed to ring round solicitors to make sure it would definitely be a solicitor doing the work:(. Not best pleased...and did wonder why I was being quoted not that much more than a conveyancer would have charged:o. DUH!

A legal executive is a qualified lawyer, just like a solicitor, and can earn a very good salary. Don't belittle legal executives! if you insist on a solicitor you will be charged accordingly.