Are there any UK solicitors, if appointed, who will bill you after the outcome of a court action?

Question

This relates to a previous question, my mother died intestate, family arguments have ensued and I want to have my share of the estate but cant afford the lawyers bills solely. Is there any way I can get a solicitor to take steps to distribute the estate and take his costs out of the proceeds before dividing it amongst the beneficiaries?
Most solicitors I have approached will want to charge stage by stage. This is not a 'No Win No Fee' situation as I understand.
Will appreciate your good advice . Thank you.

JM

Answer 1

Any solicitor will expect you to place him in funds initially to cover the costs of taking out Letters of Administration. One of the problems of dealing with the estate of a person who has died intestate is that inheritance tax has to be paid up front by the person making the application, so there are more things than the solicitor's fees to worry about, especially if your mother left substantial property. However, if your mother died leaving a number of bank and building society accounts then what could happen in practice is that once things start moving, you will find the solicitor handling the estate willing and able to reimburse you for your initial expenditure and then take money out of the estate to cover fees as he goes along. If your mother left considerable liquid assets, therefore, all you have to worry about is finding the initial lump sum to pay down to the solicitor. If she didn't, then you may well have to take out a bank loan to pay fees and charges, as otherwise nothing is going to get done. Remember, everything you pay down is reimbursable. Very unfairly, however, you can't claim for interest charges if you do take out a loan.
I have been in this situation and I know what it is like. My sympathies as well as my condolences.

p.s.
Having traced your earlier question, I realise that you are not in fact in a position to take action of this kind, as another sibling is administrator of the estate. That means that you cannot have access to your share of your mother's estate until it has been wound up. That other relative is in the driving seat and unless you feel that you have reason to sue your relative (which sould be a most regrettable thing to do and would probably cause a permanent rift) you will probably have to sit this one out. Solicitors are only permitted to work on a contingency fee basis in non-contentious cases, which such a case as this would certainly not be!

Answer 2

Hi
There are none that I can think of however the citizens advice bureau are very good no matter what bad press they may get. Also you could look into local universities some do law clinics and they will take cases on and give an unbiased view for free.

Personally though I would get down to your local citizens advice they will be in the phone book or yellow pages, you may have to wait a couple of hours to get seen, but it is by far your best option.