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WHY USE US?

Occasionally you can get somebody else to pay your legal bills for you. But the other side of the coin is occasionally you may end up having to pay someone's legal bill for them. This page tries to give an outline of how that works.

The first point to remember is the cardinal rule that every client is responsible for their own legal bill and must pay it themselves even if they cannot get someone else to pay it for them. Even if they can get someone else to pay it for them, it is still their responsibliity to pay it first and then get the money back from the other person concerned. In other words the bill is not theirs it is yours even though you may be entitled to reimbursement.

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 your lawyer all of it. You must recover the other half from the other client yourself if you need to.

Possibilities for getting someone else to pay your legal fees or at least help you with them, or conversely, how someone else might force you to help them with their legal fees or pay them all for them are as follows:

Legal fees insurance (BTE or ATE)

Government help with legal fees

Court orders for costs

  • 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.

Will I have to pay someone else's legal bill?

Generally no, but there are exceptions:

  • - If you are a client jointly with one or more other clients, then all of you are liable for all of the others' bills.

  • - In litigation, you can be ordered to pay costs. In general terms, this will only happen if you fight a case to the bitter end in court and lose. In theory the same applies if you voluntarily drop a court case but in practice in many cases withdrawal can be achieved by agreement with no costs liability (provided you have not, for example, dropped it just because it is a hopeless case!).

  • - If you are taking out a mortgage, the lender almost always requires you to pay its legal costs as well. We often act for the lender as well as you and this helps to keep the cost down, but still any extra instructions we receive from the lender will increase the cost to you again.

  • - Tenants are often required to pay landlords legal costs. We will advise you if this applies in your case.

  • - Otherwise generally you can only be required to pay someone else's legal fees if you agree to do so.