“Do solicitors charge for time spent preparing their bills?

Answer 1

Judging by the size of mine ....I'd say certainly

Answer 2

Yes.

Clearly it is up to you and your lawyer (assuming you are not on legal aid) to agree your financial arrangements. However, I understand that leading City lawyers record their time on a 6 minute interval basis and if they are preparing your bill they will charge!

Incidentally, last time I went to see a lawyer I got sent a detailed contract to sign about things like fees - I understand that is what the UK Law Society require these days! I think this is bureaucracy gone mad in relation to personal clients. An informal agreement would be subject to custom, practice and general law (just like my paying for a sack of potatoes at the greengroceer). At the end of the day you have to trust your solicitor or else you really are in trouble (as unfortunately one of my relatives was a few years ago). A reputable profession should be able to solve any problems easily, by arbitration if necessary.

Answer 3

Solicitors are supposed to charge for their professional services. Preparing bills is not their professional service, hence the question of charging for that does not arise.

Answer 4

Yes - if your case is Legal Aid, NO in most other cases.

Despite what most people answering this question seem to think, it is usually regarded as "poor practice" to charge privately-paying clients for the time spent preparing their bill as, in effect a "running total" should be kept all the way through (this is called Time-Cost Recording).

It is also usual to ask for "monies on account" during the conduct of the case and this money will be held under your name until the work has been done - and only then is the solicitor allowed to take that money as an interim bill for work done so far. The Solicitor is within his rights to halt his conduct of your case if you don't pay him monies on account when requested (and if you think you can just transfer to another solicitor you'll find he won't transfer the file and work done so far until he's paid for the work he's done).

Preparation of a bill requires that every recorded letter, phone call, fax, email, face to face discussion, time spent travelling, waiting at court and appearing in court relating to your case is counted. [One of the way of keeping your Solicitor's bills down is to make sure that you keep the number of letters and phone calls to a minimum - phoning every day to ask how your case is doing or writing a second letter because you forgot to say something in the first one will increase the fees you will be charged!].

The usual way of doing this is to charge a fixed rate for every phone call, email, fax and letter and an hourly rate for face to face interviews and court attendances.

Hourly rates are usually based on a decimal hour. In other words the number of six-minute units spent on your case. So, for example, if your solicitor charges £100 per hour and he interviews you for 12 minutes then you will be charged for 2 time units - i.e. £20. Naturally, VAT is added on top unless your solicitor has specifically stated that it is included already.

Travel and parking is charged as a "disbursement" - in other words you are charged what they had to pay (eg travel is charged at a pre-determined fixed rate per mile and parking charges are passed directly on to you - if they paid £2 to park then you are charged £2).

It is required practice that you are given and sign a set of Terms and Conditions at the start of your case. This will set out, amongst other things, who will be conducting your case, how you can complain about poor service and the fees you will be charged (eg an hourly rate and an amount per letter, phone call, etc).

Many cases can also be conducted on a "Fixed Fee Basis". In other words the total fee to be paid is agreed in advance and you are charged that amount no matter how much or how little work is involved. This is the normal practice in such areas as Conveyancing or when preparing a Will or Change of Name Deed.

If you disagree with the bill that you are being asked to pay then you can ask the Law Society (this is called a Remuneration Certificate) or a Court (this is called Taxation) to decide if it is a fair charge:-

The notes on our bills are fairly standard (and something similar should be on your bill or accompanying it):-

Remuneration Certificates
1. If you are not satisfied with the amount of our fee, you have the right to ask us to obtain a remuneration certificate from the Law Society.
2. The certificate will either say that our fee is fair and reasonable, or it will substitute a lower fee.
3. If you wish us to obtain a certificate, you must ask us to do so within one month of receiving this notice.
4. We may charge interest on unpaid bills and we will do so at the rate payable on judgement debts from one month after delivery of our bill.
5. (i) If you ask us to obtain a remuneration certificate, unless we already hold the money to cover these, you must first pay (a) half our fee shown in the bill; (b) all the V.A.T. shown in the bill; (c) all the expenses we have incurred shown in the bill - sometimes called “paid disbursements”. (ii) However, you may ask the Law Society (at 8 Dormer Place, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 5AE) to waive these requirements so that you do not have to pay anything for the time being. You would have to show that exceptional circumstances apply in your case.
6. Your rights are set out more fully in the Solicitors (Non-Contentious Business) Remuneration Order 1994.
Taxation
You may be entitled to have your charges reviewed by the Court. [This is called “Taxation”.] The procedure is different from the remuneration certificate procedure and is set out in ss.70, 71 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974.

The Law Society's website gives plenty of useful information about bills and fees. See this page for more information>>> http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/payingforservices.law

Answer 5

They charge for everything, time spent preparing bills, time spent photocopying.

Answer 6

Of course they do, they charge for everything unless you pay them in drugs and then you are ok, you wont go to prison either as they will get you off no problems.

Answer 7

Yes indeed. You are entitled to have the bill queried however, and anything judged to be excessive will be taken off.

Answer 8

yes, because they are as they say working for you, even if they are not in conference with you. I know because i've had the experience of their bill.

Answer 9

Afraid the answer is yes.

Answer 10

afraid so nothing is free with a lawyer