Solicitors fees

GrannyW

Hi,
New to this forum posting thing so please forgive any mistakes.
I am just wondering if it is normal or acceptable for an invoice from a solicitor to include handover time (within the same firm) for a solicitor who was acting on my behalf who went on maternity leave getting the new lady working on my case up to speed on the case?
To me it seems unfair to be charged approx £500 for the handover and could make choosing a female solicitor a less desirable choice for some clients. Would any other circumstances requiring a handover between colleagues at the same law firm also incur fees to the client?
How should I challenge the invoice if it isn't normal or acceptable?
Many thanks

Aylesbury_Duck

I’ve no idea if that’s normal practice in law firms but it sounds inherently unfair. I would have thought it fairer for a practice to absorb what is an overhead cost of normal business, effectively passing on a small share of such costs to all clients over the year. However, I’ve no idea under what terms you engaged them. Did you engage a particular solicitor operating in a firm, or did you engage the firm and they allocated a solicitor?

hollydays

We’re you aware the solicitors would be leaving, did you insist on this solicitor

[Deleted User]

hollydays wrote: »

We’re you aware the solicitors would be leaving, did you insist on this solicitor

Even if they had then surely they should have been made aware of any potential extra payments to facilitate this?

JamoLew

And was it made clear that any handover would be costed to you.

Sounds like shady practice to me

steampowered

Does this affect your invoice?

If you engaged the solicitor on a fixed fee basis (e.g. conveyancing), it wouldn't affect the amount you are paying.

If it does affect the amount you are paying, I don't think handover time should be billed. It would be reasonable for you to contact the solicitor/partner responsible for your case to request that the handover time is removed from the invoice.

waamo

Highly unlikely I know but are you a business with complex legal affairs?

davidmcn

GrannyW wrote: »

Would any other circumstances requiring a handover between colleagues at the same law firm also incur fees to the client?

Depends on the circumstances, I would say. If it's a long-running matter then it's inevitable at the very least there's going to be handover to cater for holiday cover. It might be desirable for some elements of the work to be delegated (so you'd have some time spent on internal discussions between the relevant fee-earners), or for different specialisms to be involved.

I would generally expect such time to be discounted though at the very least, given it isn't usually providing any added value to the client. It would be normal for the time to be recorded, but that doesn't necessarily mean they need to charge it to you - it's possible they've simply overlooked it and wouldn't have charged if they had applied more thought to it. No harm in querying it.

GrannyW wrote: »

could make choosing a female solicitor a less desirable choice for some clients.

I wouldn't say it was normal for clients to choose which individuals are handling their case. I've encountered clients who don't like "girls" doing their work, but that seems to be more general sexism rather than specifically having concern about maternity leave.

GrannyW

Thank you for all of the advice.
It is a breach of contract litigation issue so is an ongoing issue.
I didn't insist on the individual solicitors but chose to say with that firm in the hope to avoid any fees to get a new solicitor clued up on the case.
The case had the contractor pursuing us for outstanding balance, when that was dealt with, and during the communication with the contractors solicitor I discussed that the remedial works and damages would be near the £100k mark and we would hope to recover that from the contractor.
We then had to find a way to finance the litigation which is what this invoice (£750) includes (email, phone and 1hr face to face).
So far we're down £2000 before paying this invoice and still struggling to find a safe funding route.
The contractor is backed by a governing body (who only discuss things with the contractor!). We have had an independent report by an expert witness (also a member of the same governing body) the report stated 'undue care and skill', 'unfit for purpose' and we have a paper trail that the schedule of works was not fulfilled.
I'm a HCA on a local hospitals cancer ward so my 'disposable' income is very modest but unable to access legal aid. I'm also lacking the time and confidence to take it through the courts myself.
Is it possible to claim directly from the contractors indemnity insurance?
It's been real eye opener on how hard it is to get justice.

cattie

I'm not sure this will help you, but the solicitor who handled my mother's affairs after her death went off sick some weeks later.

Things eventually got sorted after a very long delay & when the invoice was received I was shocked to find that we appeared to have been charged for the time to bring solicitor no. 2 up to speed, so similar to your case.

My sister, who was executor was all for settling the bill but I was so angry that I wrote to the solicitor's expressing how I felt about the additional cost. The result was a letter of apology & a revised invoice cancelling out the additional charges that had been added.

You have nothing to lose but the price of a stamp to express your indignation at this practice & the unfair cost to you, by contacting the senior partner. Hopefully this will be enough to get them to revise the invoice & removing the additional charge.