Legal Aid Solicitor Fees

Hi All,

I read few threads re legal aid solicitor in previous forums but could not get answer to my question. please advice.

I am currently on legal aid from last 7-8 months for children act proceedings and paying £35.00 per month to LSC. During those 7-8 months, there was initially one day hearing (fact finding hearing) in which counsels of both parties appeared in court and after half a day the hearing was adjourned to 2 days because the number of allegations could not be heard in one day. In last december 2 days fact finding hearing happened (outcome in my favour). Of course around 10-15 letters were received and sent by my solicitor. From very first day my solicitor never advised me on anything, i was the one who drafted all the letters, I prepared the answres to ex's allegation, I prepared my counsel brief etc etc. I mean to say my solicitor only printed the letters on her letter head and sent to other side.

Last week, I asked my solicitor how much is her total bill till now. After numerous reminders she told me £4900 (solicitor cost) + Counsel cost (yet to receive). I was literally shocked to hear that. I asked her to give me the full breakdown of work done by her including date and hours spent on work. I sent her 3-4 reminders but she in not replying at all.

I can bet, her fees is completely unjustified. Now I am thinking to discharge my legal aid certificate after seeing this huge bill and represent myself if required.

Now my question is:

Do I need to pay back this £4900 + counsel fees to LSC ?
What is the safest way to discharge my LSC certificate?

This is what my legal aid solicitor replied in response of me asking the full breakdown of work done by her -

"We have already provided you with the information required of us for legal aid clients. If you have a financial interest in our bill because of the Statutory Charge or if you are making contributions then a copy of the detailed bill will be provided to you at the end of the proceedings and prior to the bill's assessment by the court."

When I asked for her costs, She only told me "Our costs approx:-£4,900 and disbursements £220. Counsel's fees to follow once fee notes received"

It is very clear she exagerrated her bill and hence does not want me to tell how she calculated her costs.

Please advice what to do in this situation ?

It is a complex task to provide a detailed breakdown of a bill and this is normally carried out at the end of the case.

However, your solicitor does have a duty to give you costs updates at least every 6 months under the terms of their public funding franchise.

You do have a financial interest in the bill at the end of the case as you made a contribution to the costs although this would appear to be a maximum of £280.00 (8 x £35). This is a pretty good deal bearing in mind the amount of costs incurred.

The work that you describe is reasonably involved and £5k + disbursements + counsel's fees is fairly unremarkable in this respect. At the end of the case the solicitor will have to submit a bill to the court for assessment and a District Judge will reduce or deduct any items that s/he deems unreasonable or excessive. This process will take place whether you decide to get involved or not.

I am surprised at your comments regarding drafting of letters, documentation and instructions to counsel - do you know if your solicitor used these? Drafting instructions to counsel is not a simple task and I doubt that such document prepared by a lay-client would be anything other than bloated and largely irrelevant. The same can be said of trainee solicitors when they start their training contracts.

The Statutory Charge will only apply if you obtain monies or property with the assistance of your public funding certificate. This seems unlikely if the public funding certificate only covers Children Act proceedings unless you are pursuing a Schedule 1 application which seems unlikely from your initial post. This means that it is unlikely that you will have to pay back your legal fees but any contributions that you have made or will make in the future will be non-refundable.

Bearing in mind that there are relatively few solicitors who now carry out public funding work (or have the capacity to take on new cases) - please review your situation before making complaints about bills that are largely subsidised by the state. You may find yourself without a solicitor due to a breakdown in the solicitor/client relationship.

Charles

Thanks Charles for taking the time to reply to my query.

My family court case is going on from last 3 years and I used a private solicitor until June 09. My private sol drafted the counsel's brief at first place for Children Act fact finding hearing but unfortunately the hearing had been adjourned. I amended that counsel brief this time and sent it to legal aid solicitor, which she forwarded to counsel. Counsel did confirm me that he had received the brief drafted by me and he was pleased with it.

When I was made redundant, I could not afford private sol and represented myself in 3 short hearings and then applied for legal aid. This sol took over the case in middle and never bother to read any of statements, earlier court orders etc. She never represented me in the court, never advised me before the hearing. I can understand £5k would be worth if legal aid solicitor did the work for me, but she did not. On one occassion, I asked her to apply for enforcement of contact order. She took more than a week to draft 2 pages statement, which had more than 15 corrections in it.

I think my legal aid certificate only covers Children Act Proceedings, because Ancilliary Relief proceedings finished before I was made redundant.

Charles, Is it 100% sure that I dont need to pay back this £5k + counsel fee back to LSC in future?

Even though I dont need to pay back the money to LSC, this legal aid solicitor is getting the money for the work she did not done. So I am having a strong feeling to discharge legal aid certificate for now, and if needed in future, will search for a different solicitor.

The Statutory Charge cannot apply to Children Act proceedings unless you are seeking monies.

There is a facility called 'capital reassessment of means' which enables the LSC to seek a lump sum equivilent to your fees in the event that you have a windfall. This does not happen very often.

There is another possibility that you will have to pay back all of your costs if your public funding certificate is revoked. This only happens if you act unreasonably (where the certificate is more likely to be dicharged) or you were not eligible for funding due to incorrect information. Following revocation your solicitor could in fact choose to recover the difference between public funding rates and private rates under Regulation 64 of the old Legal Aid Act. All of this is more information only and is unlikely to apply in your situation.

To be honest, the public funding is worth it obtain representation from a barrister. It may be possible to transfer to another solicitor within the same firm if you are still unhappy or you could attempt to change to a different firm but this can be problemmatical as the LSC will not allow the transfer until you have made a complaint which burns bridges with your current solicitors without having anywhere to go unless you arrange this in advance.

Charles

Thanks for all the information Charles. I really appreciate it.

Take care
NM