Solicitors over-charging

In early January I received a cost estimate from my solicitors saying that my bill to date had been in the region of £6,000 and they estimated that should I settle at FDR it would be about £12,000. I was using a junior solicitor who was on an hourly rate of £100.00. I paid everything they needed in advance and we did settle at FDR which was approximately 3 weeks after thwir cost estimate.

They are now saying that my final bill is £16,500. I am really worried as I cannot afford this as I am unemplyed and have two children to look after. They have completely wiped out any savings I had.

I cannot believe that they can charge me £10,000 for essentially 3 weeks worth of work. I did have a barrister at the FDR who charged approx £3,000 but the solicitors fee seems way over the top. What can I do?

For a start ask for a breakdown, and go through it carefully, then the question must be why is it 4.5k over estimate.

16.5k does seem heavy to get to FDR, if it was complicated it wouldn''t be unexpected though, apart from the barrister did the solicitor incur other costs?.

Working at £100 per hour (which is very low) there are an awful lot of hours to get to 13K (130) see what the solicitor has to say to begin with.

Was VAT mentioned in the estimates? And was the barrister''s fee included within the estimate?

Charles

Thanks Charles and Dukey for replying.

Yes I believe both VAT and the barristers fee were included in the cost estimate. All their invoices include VAT but this is not expressly stated in the letter.
Here is what they wrote on January 7th.

"Amount requested on account of further costs: £3,000
Amount requested on account of further disbursements: £2,000

Total costs to date and estimate

Costs to date £6,800

If your case settles at FDR I estimate the overall costs of your case to be £11,000-£12,000"

Today they have cited my husbands fees and my favourable outcome as reasons for their increased fees. I cannot see how these are in anyway relevant. I purposely hired a "cheapish" solicitor - he is still training to keep my costs to a minimum. I am stunned that they can just add thousands onto their fee without a resonable explanation.
Do you think I should contact the Law Society and ask for a renumeration certificate or keep quiet and just pay up.
I am finding this all highly stressful.

To begin with you need to be talking with the solicitor, when they say husbands fee`s what do they mean, were you at any point ordered to pay court costs?.

Solicitors bills are very fluid, they can estimate what the cost could be but that can change for many reasons, mainly because they cannot control how the other side deals with negotiations, this is where it tends to fall apart.

Its not unusual for costs to double from estimate to the conclusion of the matter, once you sign the agreement with the practice you allow them to act on your behalf, in other words you are responsible for the final bill, that`s not to say you can`t try and reduce the bill, the best chance for this to happen is for you to talk to them.

If you do start with complaints to the SRA or law society its a long and often joyless road.

They cannot add thousands based on performance unless their terms and conditions explicitly state this. In writing you should ask for a full breakdown of the work done and state that the outcome of the matter and the level of your husband''s fees do not affect the level of your own fees and it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise. Refer to the costs estimate and specifically ask them to explain why the costs estimate has been purportedly exceeded and whether an accounting error has been made in light of the difference in the figures.

The remuneration certificate process no longer exists and would not have applied to your case had it continued. The procedure is now for an Solicitors Act assessment but you might wish to make a formal complaint first then refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman. However, you should ask for the information as I said above before following this route.

Charles

thank you again for your replies. I will write a letter to them now. I will let you know how i get on.