We're Here To Help If Your Solicitor Has Charged Too Much

Solicitor Costs and Legal Costs

This area of our website is aimed at demystifying solicitors' costs and legal costs in civil and family cases, although the basic principles can also be applied to criminal cases. Legal costs are one of the biggest areas for complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, so it is vital you understand, when you are signing on the dotted line of your solicitor’s retainer contract, exactly what you are agreeing to. Our aim is to explain each area of the process from agreeing the contract, understanding the costs and who is responsible for paying them, right through to challenging your solicitor’s or court costs if you think you’ve been charged too much.

This area strikes at the very heart of the legal profession and questions many legal firm’s processes and sometimes even their ethics. Even though most solicitors’ firms charge correctly and as quoted to their clients, unfortunately there are still too many who do not and who do not follow the correct procedures, as set by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) or by the courts. This can be extremely costly for their clients and gives the profession a bad name.

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We are here to help you. To make a free, no obligation enquiry please call us on 01935 823883 or complete a Free Online Enquiry and we will soon be in touch with you. Please note that you only have a short window of time to question and challenge your lawyers’ costs, so make sure you don’t leave it until it’s too late, contact us today.

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Assessment of Costs Flowchart

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Solicitor's Costs

Four main areas

To help you through this quagmire of legalese, we have split this Solicitors’ costs section into four main areas, shown below, in chronological order of how they usually happen.

Instructing a Solicitor and the contract – this area looks at instructing a solicitor and the contract between you and them.
The Costs a Solicitor charges – here we look at the different types of costs you could be liable for and on what basis a solicitor may charge you.
Who pays the costs, you or the other side? – In this section we look at in what circumstances a client needs to pay their solicitor’s costs and when the other side is responsible for them. We also look at how a judge decides who pays what.
Challenging your solicitor’s costs or court costs – In this section we look at how you can challenge your solicitor’s bill or the court costs you have incurred, together with the timeframes involved. We also look at how the court assesses the costs and finally we give some examples of bad practice, which we hope will help to make sure you benefit from other people’s experiences.