Solicitor Solutions
Legal system - In England |
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Using a solicitor | |
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This information applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland Is a solicitor needed
Solicitors are not the only people who can provide legal advice. Legal help may be available from:-
You may act for yourself in court proceedings or, if you are acting for yourself, you may have a friend or lay representative to assist you in court. Choosing a solicitor
If you need a solicitor you should choose one who has experience in the appropriate area of law.
A local advice agency such as a law centre or Citizens Advice Bureau, should be able to recommend local solicitors who are experienced in the appropriate area of law or will be able to provide information on how to find a suitable solicitor. In some cases, a CAB can refer you to an organisation which can offer free legal help. You can also find details of solicitors on the Law Society website at www.solicitors-online.com, or go to the Community Legal Service Directory for details of solicitors and advice agencies throughout England and Wales.
If you are at a police station, or have been charged with an imprisonable offence, you can obtain free legal advice under the duty solicitors scheme. If you are at the police station, the police will contact the duty solicitor. If you are at the magistrates or youth court, the arrangements for providing the solicitor will vary. In Northern Ireland, Belfast Magistrates' Court is the only magistrates court with a duty solicitor's scheme.
If you need more information about choosing a solicitor you should contact a local advice agency, such as a law centre or an experienced adviser at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.
Consulting a solicitor
When you have chosen your solicitor, you will need to make an appointment. This will usually be within five working days. If the matter is urgent the solicitor should try and arrange an earlier appointment.
You should take all relevant documents to the appointment and it may be helpful to prepare a list of questions for the solicitor in advance.
For some cases a solicitor will require identification from you before they can act. This applies, for example, to transactions involving more than £10,000, such as a house purchase. Identification can include a current passport, driving licence or benefit book. A recent utilities bill will also have to be provided. If you do not have this sort of identification you should check with the solicitor how best to prove your identity.
A solicitor must comply with certain rules and standards laid down by the Law Society. The solicitor must, for example, give you certain information at the first interview. The information should include:
The Law Society has also produced a document called The Client's Charter, which tells you what you can expect from your solicitor and what to do if you want to make a complaint. Your solicitor does not have to give you a copy of this charter, but it is considered good practice for them to do so.
You should make sure you understand what the solicitor has told you and should not be afraid to ask questions.
During the case the solicitor should keep you regularly informed of progress and costs even if there are no significant developments.
Solicitors costs
At the beginning of the case, the solicitor must give you information about the likely cost of the case and how the charge is calculated, for example, a fixed fee, an hourly rate or a percentage fee.
In some cases, for example, personal injury cases, you may enter into a conditional fee agreement with the solicitor. This means that if you lose the case, you will have to pay the costs of the other side and, depending on the agreement, the solicitors expenses and any barristers fees. If you win the case, you will have to pay the solicitors fee at the higher rate. Generally, only people who are not receiving publicly-funded legal services can enter into a conditional fee agreement.
If you are considering entering into a conditional fee agreement, you must be clear what the terms of the agreement will entail and you should consult an experienced adviser for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.
In all cases, the solicitor must discuss how the costs are to be met and whether you are eligible for publicly-funded legal services. If the solicitor does not do publicly-funded legal services work, they must still explain the advantages of publicly-funded legal services to you if you are eligible, and give you the opportunity of going to a solicitor who does publicly-funded legal services work.
The solicitor must keep you informed about the costs throughout the case.
If the solicitor is holding your money, it must be kept in a separate deposit account and you maybe entitled to interest. The solicitors bill
You should get your bill within a reasonable time after your solicitor has finished the work they have done for you, and it will be made up of three elements: disbursements, VAT and fees.
Disbursements are the expenses the solicitor has had to pay out on your behalf, for example, fees paid to court and barristers fees.
Fees cover the professional services carried out by the solicitor on your behalf. If the work was court work, the fees that the solicitor can charge are subject to court rules. There are no scales that regulate non-court work, but the charges must be fair and reasonable. VAT will be charged on the fees and some disbursements.
If you think the bill is too high, you can:-
Getting a detailed bill from the solicitor
You can write to the solicitor asking for full details of how some or all of the charges on the bill were worked out. This letter should also include a request for a written reply. Items such as stamp duty for buying a house are fixed amounts and cannot be questioned.
Asking the Law Society to look at the bill
This procedure only applies to work which does not include court work. You can, within one month of receiving the bill, ask the solicitor to obtain a remuneration certificate which approves it or reduces it. There is no charge. You must pay half the bill and VAT and disbursements before applying for a remuneration certificate. Disbursements cannot be questioned. There is a time limit for applying for the remuneration certificate. It is usually one month but may be longer in some circumstances. The solicitor may also agree to waive the time limit. You should check the relevant time limits with the Consumer Complaints Service (see below).
The Remuneration Certificate Department of the Law Society deals with applications and queries. It is based at:-
The Consumer Complaints Service
The Law Society of Northern Ireland can advise you about disputing a solicitors bill. However, you should first request a meeting with the solicitor and if you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Remuneration Certificate Department of the Law Society of Northern Ireland at:-
The Renumeration Certificate Department
Asking a court to examine the bill
This procedure can be used for any work done by a solicitor, including court work, and is known as assessment.
The court can examine the whole bill, and can either approve it or reduce it. If the reduction is more than one-fifth, you will not pay the costs of assessment. Some publicly-funded legal services may be available.
For non-court work, the court which assesses the bill is the High Court in London. Where court work is involved, the bill will be assessed by the court which dealt with the case. In publicly-funded legal services cases, bills may be assessed by the Legal Services Commission.
If you ask for assessment within one month of getting the bill, the court must assess it. Between one month and a year, the court decides whether to agree to assessment of the bill; after a year it is very unusual for the court to agree.
The court cannot agree to assess the bill if it has been paid and more than one year has gone by.
You can ask the court to examine the bill even if you have signed a conditional fee agreement.
If you have problems paying a solicitor's bill, the solicitor might insist on immediate payment. They could also charge interest on bills for non-court work after a month. However, they may agree to let you pay your bill in instalments.
An experienced adviser's help will usually be needed to assess whether you should challenge a solicitors bill, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB. Complaints about solicitors
You may be dissatisfied with your solicitor for a number of reasons, for example, you may have problems with publicly-funded legal services and/or you may be dissatisfied with the outcome of the case. You cannot complain about these things to your solicitor. However, if you are dissatisfied with the way the case was handled by the solicitor, for example, delays, or losing documents or money, you can complain.
You should first try to resolve the complaint by discussing it with the solicitor. All solicitors firms must have a written complaints procedure and the firm will tell you who to contact if you have a problem with the solicitor handling the case. The solicitor must give you a copy of the complaints procedure if you ask for it.
If this does not resolve the matter, in England and Wales you should contact the Consumer Complaints Service (CCS). The CCS has a telephone help-line which can advise you about whether there are grounds for a complaint and, if so, how to proceed. The telephone number of the help-line is 0845 608 6565 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm). You will need to contact the CCS within six months of the end of the work which your solicitor did for you, or within six months of your solicitor's final response to your complaint.
If you wish to proceed with the complaint, you should fill in a special form available from the CCS. The address is:-
The Consumer Complaints Service
The CCS will consider the complaint and, if appropriate, pass it on to a different section of the Law Society which could discipline the solicitor and/or order the solicitor to:
More details about the CCS are contained in a leaflet called What to do if you are dissatisfied with your solicitor available from the CCS at the above address.
If the solicitor has made a mistake which has caused you financial loss of more than £5000, the CCS cannot deal with the case and you may need to take legal action against the solicitor. You will need to obtain legal advice. Publicly-funded legal services may be available.
If you are not satisfied with the way that the CSS has handled your complaint, you may also be able to complain to the Legal Services Ombudsman.
For details of the Legal Services Ombudsman, see How to use an ombudsman.
In Northern Ireland, the Law Society of Northern Ireland investigates complaints against solicitors. You should give your solicitor the opportunity to deal with your complaint first. To contact the Law Society, write to the Chief Executive at:-
Law Society House
If the Law Society of Northern Ireland upholds your complaint it may order the solicitor to:-
The Law Society cannot order the solicitor to pay you compensation. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint to the Law Society, you can write to the Lay Observer at:-
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