Your money

If in the course of acting for you as your solicitors we have to receive or hold money on your behalf, we keep this money in a separate account that holds just clients’ money. This keeps it especially safe. Payments into and out of this account are governed by strict rules laid down by the Law Society, and the account is separately audited by an independent qualified accountant to ensure compliance.

If we hold your money for anything longer than a short period of time, we will pay interest to you. The interest will be paid in accordance with Law Society guidelines. In general terms, the rate of interest will be what would have been received if we had put the money in an interest bearing account on receipt.

When we pay money to you, we will generally do so by cheque payable to you. If we use another method (eg bank transfer) we will deduct a charge for this from the payment. We will not pay in cash. We will not pay to anyone other than the client. If there is more than one client, we will pay to any one or more of them in our discretion and this will discharge our liability to all of them.

Commissions

As solicitors we are completely independent. We do not accept commissions from anybody. So whatever our advice, you can be sure it is based on your interests and is not in the slightest bit influenced by any commission or similar payment received from anybody else.

Very occasionally, we receive or are offered a commission or similar even though we never expected it or sought it out. In that event the commission will be disclosed to you and credited to your account. So you will receive it, not us.

Gifts

Occasionally clients think we are so wonderful that they want to buy us a gift, or leave us something in their will or whatever. We do not accept any gift, except one of a purely nominal value.

Our Fees

Legal fees tend to be a cause of great confusion and mystery. But we aim to be totally open and transparent about how our fees for our services are made up.

As with most law firms, we use hourly rates as a guide when setting fees. Our current hourly rates will be detailed to you at the outset of a matter, and again on each bill you receive from us. Hourly rates will be revised from time to time, and you will always find the latest rates on the back of the bill.

However, hourly rates on their own can be inflexible. In particular they give an incentive to be inefficient, and our ambition is to be the most efficient law firm around. So other matters, apart from hourly rates, come into the reckoning when deciding a fair charge. These include:

• Complexity of the matter or difficulty or novelty of the questions raised;

• Skill labour specialised knowledge and responsibility involved;

• Number and importance of the documents prepared or studied (whatever their length);

• Place and circumstances in which the business is transacted (in particular we reserve the right to charge extra for work that is done out of office hours (except for our own convenience) or in an emergency).

• Amount or value of any money or property involved; in particular under this heading in probate cases a ‘value factor’ is usually charged of 1.5% of the value of the estate;

• Whether any land involved is registered;

• Importance of the matter to the client;

• Approval (express or implied) of the fees or the work, by the client or (if its administration of an estate) beneficiary or willmaker.

When it come to fees our commitment to you is:

• we will charge you no more than a reasonable amount for the work done having regard to all the circumstances of your case

• whenever you receive an account from us you are entitled to an explanation of how it is calculated on request

• If you are not happy with the bill our policy is always that we much prefer to reduce a bill than to lose a client

• but in the event that we just cannot agree on what is a fair fee then you have the right to have the charge independently assessed

• all these details are repeated on all our bills so that you have them readily to hand when you need them.

As you will read below we mostly bill monthly. In the nature of things therefore you may occasionally receive a bill that seems reasonable at the time but which subsequent events show needs adjusting.

For this reason any bill you receive from us is based not just on that particular month’s work but also on a continuing assessment of the matter as a whole, including bills already rendered (or to be rendered). This could result in a monthly bill being more or less than it would have otherwise been if it had just related solely to that month.

In particular we frequently underbill; in other words, charge less than would really be justified. We do this because we appreciate that legal advice is expensive and we want to help out with the cost as much as possible. But we may overbill later to compensate. For example, if we underbill and you then win a case we may well adjust your bills to a more commercial rate. This underbilling is purely at our discretion though. Your legal responsibility is to pay the full amount in any event, any reduction we allow is as an exercise of discretion by us after the event and not your entitlement before the event.

Remember that we will supply a justification of any account you receive from us on request. If you feel it is too high we will be happy to discuss it with you. We value your goodwill too much to risk losing it over the amount of a bill.

How you can help keep the bill down

There are a number of things you can do which might help to keep the bill lower than it would otherwise be. For example

• Bring all relevant papers with you when coming to see us. If in doubt, bring it anyway.

• Tell us if you have any special needs relating to the service that would not be obvious to us.

• Tell us at the start what you expect so that we can agree what it might be possible to achieve.

• Tell us immediately if your expectations change.

• Tell us of any personal time limits or targets that would not be obvious to us.

• Make sure that you always understand what we tell you. If not sure, please tell us.

• Reply as soon as possible when we contact you.

• Tell us right away if your name address or phone number changes.

• Tell us if your circumstances change in any way that affects your case or the way we deal with it.

Fixed Fees

If we do give you a fixed quote for any matter, it will be confirmed by letter. None of our staff acting on our behalf has any authority to give you a fixed fee quote otherwise than in writing. The letter will also state precisely what services the quote covers. The quoted fee will be payable in advance.

Tax & Expenses

VAT will be added to our fees.

Also any expenses incurred during the case will be added ("disbursements"). This applies whether or not the fees are quoted.

No win no fee

The phrase 'no win no fee' is often used nowadays (or sometimes the term ‘conditional fee agreement’ is used). We sometimes offer services on this basis. If we do so in your case we will specifically say so in writing. Never assume we are working for you on a ‘no win no fee’ basis unless we actually say so to you in writing.

It is very important to know precisely what this phrase ‘no win no fee’ actually means in practical terms, as it can be used to mean different things. So if you are offered ‘no win no fee’ terms, read the terms carefully and do not agree or sign anything until you are satisfied that you understand them and are content with them.

Can I get my legal expenses paid by someone else?

Occasionally you can, but this bill is your responsibility and you must pay it even if you cannot.

Liability to pay this bill is shared by all the clients for whom we are acting in a matter, whether or not they are named on the bill. Normally only one client will be named on the bill. Liability on each client is to pay all of the bill irrespective of any arrangement that may have been made between the clients. If for example you have agreed with another client to pay half each, you are still responsible for paying us all of it. You must recover the other half from the other client yourself if you need to.

Points to consider include:

1. You might have legal expenses insurance cover. Sometimes this is called ‘before the event’ cover (BTE). Sometimes you get this for free as part of household or car cover. You might not even realise you have it, so check! If you do have such cover, it is important you let us know as soon as possible. This is because almost all insurance companies will only reimburse you costs incurred with their prior approval, and we will charge for work done by us to get the insurance company to provide this cover (it is not always easy!).
2. If you do not already have BTE legal expenses insurance cover, you may be able to arrange insurance cover now. This is sometimes called ‘after the event insurance’ (ATE). It would be advisable to arrange this if you can afford it, although ATE premiums do tend to be very much higher than BTE premiums because the risk for the insurance company is very much higher. The cost of ATE cover is therefore prohibitive in many cases.
3. You might be able to get legal aid or similar. There are some schemes whereby people, usually of modest means, may be able to get help with payment of their legal fees. Sometimes this help takes the form of a grant, sometimes a contribution and sometimes a loan.
4. If your opponent is in receipt of legal aid this may stop you claiming any costs from them.
5. If you are a member of (eg) a trade union or other organisation, it may offer help with legal costs as a benefit of membership. Some employers do this also.
6. Although legal fees can sometimes be recovered from another party (eg if you win a court case) this is not guaranteed and becoming rarer all the time. You would be better to assume there will be no such recovery in your case unless you have clear written advice to the contrary.
7. Even if a court orders somebody to pay towards your legal fees, it might not be 100%. In fact 100% costs awards are very rare.
8. And he might not be able to pay. He may simply not have the money.
9. There is no guarantee you will win and get such an order anyway. What if you lose? If you lose a legal case you may well be ordered to pay the other side’s costs as well as your own.
10. The responsibility for paying your legal fees is almost always yours alone, irrespective of whether anybody else is supposed to be reimbursing them to you. This means that if that reimbursement is not forthcoming you still have to pay.
11. Is the expense worth it? Consider the benefit you may get as a result of spending on legal costs. Is it worth it in financial terms? If not, is the principal at issue worth the expense?
12. If you wish you can set a limit above which your legal costs payable to us must not rise without your prior approval. If you want to do this please let us know. We will confirm this in writing. If you do not receive this confirmation please call us so we can ensure there is no misunderstanding.

Government financing

Please read this even if you do not qualify for legal aid yourself – it is important.

The government has schemes to help people of modest means with their legal expenses. There are various schemes, which tend to be commonly known together as ‘legal aid’.

The main advantage of being on legal aid is that it acts, in effect, as an insurance policy against losing. A person on legal aid who loses the case will have his legal fees paid by the government and, generally speaking, will not have to pay any of the costs of the other side. So even if you are not on legal aid yourself, you must bear this in mind if your opponent is.

If a person on legal aid wins the case, then as a general rule he gets no assistance from the government with his legal fees. He must pay them himself, either out of his winnings or by obtaining an order that his opponent pays his costs (or a bit of both). Obviously though if what he has won is not money or sellable for money (custody of a child perhaps) this will not apply and the government will pay.

If you think that you might be eligible for legal aid and may be interested in applying, we recommend that you contact the Legal Services Commission at 85 Grays Inn Road London WC1X 8AA (Phone 0207-759-0000).

Free legal assistance

Sometimes we do cases completely or partly free of charge. Feel free to enquire. Bear in mind however that this does not apply to your case unless we have very clearly said so in writing.

Billing

We will generally send you a statement of account approx. monthly, though you can change the frequency if you wish. Any amount shown due on this must be paid by the date stated in it.

If it is not paid, interest will be added and we will be entitled to stop work on the matter. The rate of interest will be determined by us from time to time and will vary from time to time.

Occasionally we may request a deposit to be made in respect of future fees or outgoings. Any such deposit must be paid to us on demand. Otherwise, once again, we will be entitled to stop work on the case.

Paying

You can pay our bill or any other monies you want to pay to us by:

• Cheque. We will need to wait 10 clear working days for a cheque to clear.

• Banker’s draft or building society (etc) cheque. Because of increasing levels of fraud we will still need to wait 10 clear working days for one of these to clear.

• Bank transfer. You can arrange this with your bank. Different services are available depending on how quickly you want the money to arrive with us.

• Debit or credit card. (We charge a fee of 3% for credit cards to cover the charges we pay the credit card company)

• Cash. But please note we cannot accept cash in excess of £1,000. If in an exceptional case we do so, a charge of 10% of the cash will be made to cover additional costs incurred.

If a bill remains unpaid then we are entitled to retain any documents or property of yours until it is paid, and to sell such items to settle the bill if we so wish.

If we hold any money of yours (whether we have received it from you or someone else), all solicitors are obliged by Law Society rules to take payment from this money. However, you still have the right to challenge the bill if you wish to do so.