Capital contribution order from Marston after trial ended Huge Bill!

john12111

Yesterday I received a Capital contribution order letters from Marston.

This is after me and my husband (who is in prison right now) were convicted in crown court over six months ago. He was initially arrested in May 2020 and then trial was in Sept 2023.

The letter is regarding the legal aid costs. Me and My husband both had separate solicitors who hardly did any work. At most they would have spent 50 hours (if that). The breakdown is as following

For my case - Total over £81,000 (approx)
Barrister £21k & solicitor £60k

For my husband's case - Total - over £40000 (approx)
Barrister £20k & solicitor £20k

From solicitors, we were always told that the legal aid is free because our income is low. We were never made aware that there would be this huge bill due to us owning the property that we live in. 

How is it possible that the bill for the solicitor who did more work is less compared to the one hardly did any work for us?

Is there anything that can be done about? I am so stressed out right now that I am unable to think properly and do the normal work as my mind cannot think anything else other than this.

sourcrates

Hi,

Sorry for the position you find yourself in, this is a quite specific area of law, and I think you would be better advised to ask on the Legal Beagles website, as they are more geared up to answer such things.

Voyager2002

I second the advice to go to Legal Beagles.

In general terms: 
1. If you think your legal costs are unfair or unreasonable, you can ask the Solicitors' Regulatory Agency (SRA) to look at them. This is called "taxation" and there should be a note about this process on every invoice you have received from your lawyers. Be aware that there is a fee for this service.
2. It is possible that Legal Aid are wrongly asking you to contribute: that is something to check. And if it turns out that you were given incorrect information about legal costs and your liability to pay them, you can make a complaint about your solicitors.

And you might like to check whether the enormous numbers you give in your post are the total costs of the legal services you received, or the amounts that you are supposed to contribute towards them.

john12111

Thanks a lot, I am going to post it on Legal Beagles

The letter from Marston states that they are asking us to contribute 100% so I guess it is the full bill that they are trying to get from us.

I just had a call with my husband's solicitor and she was confused why we received this invoice so clearly she had no knowledge about this and hence never explained it to us. I had to explain her that because of the equity being greater than £30k, we are liable for it and she was surprised. Maybe she is just playing dumb?

DisabledDan

john12111 said:

Yesterday I received a Capital contribution order letters from Marston.

This is after me and my husband (who is in prison right now) were convicted in crown court over six months ago. He was initially arrested in May 2020 and then trial was in Sept 2023.

The letter is regarding the legal aid costs. Me and My husband both had separate solicitors who hardly did any work. At most they would have spent 50 hours (if that). The breakdown is as following

For my case - Total over £81,000 (approx)
Barrister £21k & solicitor £60k

For my husband's case - Total - over £40000 (approx)
Barrister £20k & solicitor £20k

From solicitors, we were always told that the legal aid is free because our income is low. We were never made aware that there would be this huge bill due to us owning the property that we live in. 

How is it possible that the bill for the solicitor who did more work is less compared to the one hardly did any work for us?

Is there anything that can be done about? I am so stressed out right now that I am unable to think properly and do the normal work as my mind cannot think anything else other than this.

It happened to a former friend of mine, they put a charge on his house.

He professed his innocence despite the verdict so did the whole stretch (7.5 years) I got shock of my life when I saw him in a supermarket, while inside smoked all kinds of artificial stuff and came out with drug induced psychosis. 

Courts cost money, Solicitors charge anything from £200 to £1500 per hour regardless of verdict.  You can ask for a costs assessment but little point.  If they told you up front you would have a charge on your house I suspect you would have still done it.

I wonder if they passed the prosecution costs to the first defendant 

john12111

DisabledDan said:

...

I wonder if they passed the prosecution costs to the first defendant 

I guess only way to find this out would be contact the solicitor of the defendent who has claimed double the cost. I really doubt that the prosecution costs have been passed on. The one who claimed double the cost did 30% of the work who claimed less. Day light robbery it seems to me.

fatbelly

I have met quite a few clients in your situation over the years. Not specifically the same but equivalent.

The LAA charge just sits there attracting interest at 8%. This is flat rate not compound.

You should have been given a leaflet. Google Paying your Civil Legal Aid- gov.uk

john12111

The solicitor has replied to the email with this

"When we submit our bill to the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), the fee is calculated in accordance with regulations by reference to the class of offence, the number of pages of prosecution evidence and the type of hearing, in [defendent's] case, a trial.  It is a formula used to calculate our costs.  The LAA then audit the bill and determine the amount to be paid.  The bill is not calculated by the number of hours that I have worked on the case.  It is a fixed fee"

How true is this? How is it possible that such a large sum gets awarded by the legal aid? I thought Legal aid was really cheap compared to private solicitors and hence solicitors are less keen to take on Legal aid cases? This seems opposite to me. I am sure it would have turned out fraction of the cost if we went with a private solicitor knowing legal aid is lot more expensive.

According to the invoice, if it was paid hourly at £60-£70 (normal legal aid rates) then it means solicitor would have spent around 1000 hours which equals to roughly 125 working days. Anyone who has some expertise in this field can please help?

Bossyboots

It is a while since I did legal aid submissions but it is correct that it is on a fixed costs basis as explained. Yes, it is entirely possible for a bill to be in these figures for a full trial on an offence that warranted a not inconsiderable custodial sentence. I have tried to find an easy reference online for you to read but haven't found one yet.

I doubt it would have been cheaper going private and you would have had to be making upfront payments.  Not only would your solicitor's hourly rate be in the £hundreds, the cost of a barrister would be even more eye watering.

You definitely should have been told this should have been offset against your house. You should at least have been given a leaflet and/or correspondence from your solicitor setting this out.  However, people do not always take in what is said with all the other information. Also, it was my experience that a shocking number of solicitors did not understand the rules themselves, particularly the issue of home ownership. 

john12111

Bossyboots said:

It is a while since I did legal aid submissions but it is correct that it is on a fixed costs basis as explained. Yes, it is entirely possible for a bill to be in these figures for a full trial on an offence that warranted a not inconsiderable custodial sentence. I have tried to find an easy reference online for you to read but haven't found one yet.

I doubt it would have been cheaper going private and you would have had to be making upfront payments.  Not only would your solicitor's hourly rate be in the £hundreds, the cost of a barrister would be even more eye watering.

You definitely should have been told this should have been offset against your house. You should at least have been given a leaflet and/or correspondence from your solicitor setting this out.  However, people do not always take in what is said with all the other information. Also, it was my experience that a shocking number of solicitors did not understand the rules themselves, particularly the issue of home ownership. 

I am currently going though following guidelines on gov uk site to see what options are available as my main source of income right now is Universal Credit. Does anyone here know if there is a way to appeal due to JSA and Universal credit? Maybe persuade Marston towards small monthly contributions instead.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criminal...-means-testing

fatbelly

I managed to copy that link. This is the leaflet you should have been given.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/860909/Client_Legal_Aid_Leaflet.pdf

Marstons will accept small monthly payments but the whole sum will still be secured against the property. I would caution against making payment if you are on a low income or benefits. After all, you have a life to live.

Are you worried that you will be forced to sell? That does not happen.