Excessive legal fees

josephharte

Rear ended. Went to solicitor. Said he charged modest fees. Did all the papers. He paid minimum examination fee. Looking for 4 grand. Is this right?

234

Your post isn't that clear: is the fee in respect of a medical examination or expert report? Or is the professional fee charged by the solicitor?

If it's the former then he has no control over the price. You can ask to see the invoice to verify.

If the latter then it really depends on the case. There is no standard fee. Also keep in mind that value for money also involves quality. While there might be solicitors who would charge less, that doesn't mean that they would be giving you the same quality of service.

dharn

If you were rear ended why are you not using your insurance company to sue the other driver

Pro Hoc Vice

dharn wrote: »

If you were rear ended why are you not using your insurance company to sue the other driver

I do not believe that is a service offered by a persons own insurance company unless they have some legal fees insurance, which in any event does not cover such a situation.

Pro Hoc Vice

josephharte wrote: »

Rear ended. Went to solicitor. Said he charged modest fees. Did all the papers. He paid minimum examination fee. Looking for 4 grand. Is this right?

That figure could be very reasonable or not depending on all the facts.

dharn

infosys wrote: »

I do not believe that is a service offered by a persons own insurance company unless they have some legal fees insurance, which in any event does not cover such a situation.

Surely in any crash situation insurance details are exchanged and insurance companies take it from there

Pro Hoc Vice

dharn wrote: »

Surely in any crash situation insurance details are exchanged and insurance companies take it from there

Yes in relation to any material damage or the Defence of any Personal injury claim against you. If you have a personal injury you need to engage a solicitor to sue the other driver or person who caused the accident.

dharn

Will the guilty party not ultimately pay all costs or their insurance company

Pro Hoc Vice

dharn wrote: »

Will the guilty party not ultimately pay all costs or their insurance company

The party who lost the case will have to pay "party and party costs" the usual way a solicitor is paid is "solicitor client costs".

An example of the difference is you can in a case only get costs for say one expert med report at say €500 plus vat say your first report you are not not happy so your solicitor engages another doctor who charges €600 and that report is used. The other side has to only pay for one report. Also a solicitors fees may not be covered in full by the defendant.

josephharte

Went to solicitor. He said his fees were modest. I went to hospital once and doctor a few times. Could not afford Physio as work did not pay me. Idid the injuries board doctor visit. My ex employer wouldn't give wages cert. the solicitor tried to get a cert and couldn't. Lots of letters back and forth. But basically nothing out of the ordinary. The solicitor is looking for about 3400 for his work. It's going on a year now. We were rear ended and it's a no brainier. My better half is also using the solicitor and the injuries suffered there are a lot more serious. So basically we think the solicitor will rearend us ten times the amount for her. Any advice. We are absolutely disgusted. So it's 3500 out of 13000 for the solicitor if we accept or else if we go to court and the other side settle will they pay our fees then?

Pro Hoc Vice

josephharte wrote: »

Went to solicitor. He said his fees were modest. I went to hospital once and doctor a few times. Could not afford Physio as work did not pay me. Idid the injuries board doctor visit. My ex employer wouldn't give wages cert. the solicitor tried to get a cert and couldn't. Lots of letters back and forth. But basically nothing out of the ordinary. The solicitor is looking for about 3400 for his work. It's going on a year now. We were rear ended and it's a no brainier. My better half is also using the solicitor and the injuries suffered there are a lot more serious. So basically we think the solicitor will rearend us ten times the amount for her. Any advice. We are absolutely disgusted. So it's 3500 out of 13000 for the solicitor if we accept or else if we go to court and the other side settle will they pay our fees then?

I assume PIAB awarded the 13,000. If so the range for a PIAB application is between 1,500 to 2,500 plus VAT (could be more or less depending on amount of work involved), did you pay the application fee if not that's 45 did you pay the medical report then 350. Was there any other reports. So let's say fee for PIAB 2000 plus VAT is 2430 plus 45 2475 plus 350 2825.

Ask the solicitor for a breakdown, and say thank you to PIAB pre PIAB the insurance company would have paid the vast majority of your legal costs, now you have to pay them.

kennM

josephharte wrote: »

Went to solicitor. He said his fees were modest. I went to hospital once and doctor a few times. Could not afford Physio as work did not pay me. Idid the injuries board doctor visit. My ex employer wouldn't give wages cert. the solicitor tried to get a cert and couldn't. Lots of letters back and forth. But basically nothing out of the ordinary. The solicitor is looking for about 3400 for his work. It's going on a year now. We were rear ended and it's a no brainier. My better half is also using the solicitor and the injuries suffered there are a lot more serious. So basically we think the solicitor will rearend us ten times the amount for her. Any advice. We are absolutely disgusted. So it's 3500 out of 13000 for the solicitor if we accept or else if we go to court and the other side settle will they pay our fees then?

Hey Joseph,

Be careful... ultimately if you refuse and take it to court there is risk associated to it. If the court awards less that the injuries board offer you will likely end up liable for your legal costs PLUS their legal costs.... which will be paid out of your settlement.

If the court awards more than the PIAB offer then the other sides will likely cover your legal costs but the solicitor costs for the PIAB application are not recoupable as far as I'm aware.

The unfortunate reality is that solicitor costs are not recoverable in the PIAB process unless in exceptional cases, e.g. accident involving a minor etc.

Best advice has been given, ask for a detailed breakdown of the costs...

Hope this helps

josephharte

Got the great news today the fee is a modest 2200 plus vat for the application to piab for professional fees. Guess what the fee for my wife is the same even though he has done a lot more on hers. Then you have all the add ons. I asked for his fee many times. He wouldn't let me know when I asked him. So to all of you out there be warned. I will be complaining.

johnnyskeleton

josephharte wrote: »

Got the great news today the fee is a modest 2200 plus vat for the application to piab for professional fees. Guess what the fee for my wife is the same even though he has done a lot more on hers. Then you have all the add ons. I asked for his fee many times. He wouldn't let me know when I asked him. So to all of you out there be warned. I will be complaining.

Who exactly are you warning?

234

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

Who exactly are you warning?

Well since we are the victims of his complaining, perhaps he is warning us.

josephharte

Sorry. Not warning people. If a solicitor does not give you a charter of prices before you sign up to them, then walk away. I guess I should have known better. Having spoke to a few solicitors since I learned that the ave fee is between 1200 to 1500 euro plus vat plus extras

johnnyskeleton

josephharte wrote: »

Sorry. Not warning people. If a solicitor does not give you a charter of prices before you sign up to them, then walk away.

I couldn't agree more. Everyone should shop around and be price wise.

josephharte

Huge debate with solicitor over his fee. Got him down by 400 plus vat for his piab fee. So 1800 plus vat.

Pat Mustard

josephharte wrote: »

1800 plus vat.

You did very well.

So the OP got 2 PIAB applications done (he and his wife), got a settlement for a decent amount and in frankly quite reasonable time, wasn't happy with his bill so negotiated it down by almost 20% and then comes on to warn people to shop around and imply that his solicitor (who it sounds to me did a thoroughly professional job) overcharged him.

Not to mention it sounds like the solicitor paid all the outlays themselves and therefore would have been out of pocket if it all went badly. But who cares about that eh? Gougers...

The world's mad Ted.

littlemac1980

josephharte wrote: »

Got the great news today the fee is a modest 2200 plus vat for the application to piab for professional fees. Guess what the fee for my wife is the same even though he has done a lot more on hers. Then you have all the add ons. I asked for his fee many times. He wouldn't let me know when I asked him. So to all of you out there be warned. I will be complaining.

Sounds reasonable.

Pat Mustard

Deleted User wrote: »

So the OP got 2 PIAB applications done (he and his wife), got a settlement for a decent amount and in frankly quite reasonable time, wasn't happy with his bill so negotiated it down by almost 20% and then comes on to warn people to shop around and imply that his solicitor (who it sounds to me did a thoroughly professional job) overcharged him.

Not to mention it sounds like the solicitor paid all the outlays themselves and therefore would have been out of pocket if it all went badly. But who cares about that eh? Gougers...

The world's mad Ted.

He's probably a business class client, who wants the premium service:

"In economy, no frills. In business class, it'll all be free – including the blow jobs."

:pac:

Bepolite

It's not normally hard to find someone on a Ryanair Flight to oblige on route to certain destinations.