Excessive legal fees or the norm?!?! HELP!!

Ladycurvy

Hi all, really hope someone can shed some light on this... I'm in total shock!

I had a personal injuries case settled "on the corridors" (outside a court room) of the 4 courts during the week. This was settled by a "senior council" - not my own solicitor which I was taken aback by as this was news to me upon arrival into meet them "in the corridors" of the 4 courts.
The solicitor I am using is new to our family however really liked him and built up a good rapport with him from initial meeting stages and felt he was extremely compassionate and trustworthy from the time we met him so bought into him and his company very fast.
However, an offer was made and they came over to me to advise of the amount offered directly by the defendant and I was recommended by both my sol & the snr council that it was a decent offer. The amount offered to me was a total net payment of €25k. I asked would I have to pay my agreed solicitor fees of €3500 (no win no fee basis agreement offered by this solicitor) out of this €25k sum and I was told no, this is a net amount to you and all the legal fees have been agreed & settled additional to this.
I never thought to ask what the TOTAL sum offered on the case was as I was just happy the €25k was mine and no fees had to come out of that amount.
....
I was told an agreement letter would be issued to me from the defendant directly (as there was no insurance company involved) and this would be issued to me via my solicitor upon my solicitor receiving same.
I received the letter today and I am gutted to read that the total value of the case is infact €40k to include all legal fees and this was full and final payment etc. I cannot believe I (a) was not told the total sum my case was worth and (b) that my solicitor has taken €15k on fees when our agreed fee was €3500 when we began to pursue this case!!
Am I being unreasonable?! The case was very straight forward - no complications and when I called the office to query why €15k had been take. Off the sum awarded to me in was told that they were the fees incurred & that the snr council fees were €4k?!?! I'm in total shock as the snr council had no involvement in this until the day I met him in the corridor and there was no mention of him until that day..... How could he possibly charge €4k for less than one hours work?!

Anybody any advise?! I feel really ripped off and hurt.

NoQuarter

A couple of things;

1. The way your case was settled in general is completely normal.

2. Your offer may well only have been "25k and fees" and if that is agreed, the legal team can put in high fees because it is the defendant paying them, not you, which seems to be the case here. If it was the other way around, you would have been told you were offered "40k ALL IN" and then the legal fees would come out of that. But that doesnt seem to be what happened here so the value of your claim was always only 25k. Defendants usually pay the plaintiffs costs separate, it doesnt mean if your legal team had have charged 50% that you would have got a bigger reward.

3. The senior counsel didnt only do an hours work, they knew your case inside out by the time you arrived. Not only that, they were aware of any possible legal outcome that your case may have encountered. Did you send a summons to the defendants? Who do you think drafted that? Your Barrister was probably in the case from very early on, you just dont see them until you get to court.

4. If they recommended the offer because it was decent, then it was a decent offer. They are on your side and get more money if it actually goes to Court.

5. What on earth did you think you were going to the four courts for?! No offence to you but you seem to be very naive from reading your post, surely when your solicitor asked you to meet him in the courts you would have asked him why!

Pro Hoc Vice

Ladycurvy wrote: »

Hi all, really hope someone can shed some light on this... I'm in total shock!

I had a personal injuries case settled "on the corridors" (outside a court room) of the 4 courts during the week. This was settled by a "senior council" - not my own solicitor which I was taken aback by as this was news to me upon arrival into meet them "in the corridors" of the 4 courts.
The solicitor I am using is new to our family however really liked him and built up a good rapport with him from initial meeting stages and felt he was extremely compassionate and trustworthy from the time we met him so bought into him and his company very fast.
However, an offer was made and they came over to me to advise of the amount offered directly by the defendant and I was recommended by both my sol & the snr council that it was a decent offer. The amount offered to me was a total net payment of €25k. I asked would I have to pay my agreed solicitor fees of €3500 (no win no fee basis agreement offered by this solicitor) out of this €25k sum and I was told no, this is a net amount to you and all the legal fees have been agreed & settled additional to this.
I never thought to ask what the TOTAL sum offered on the case was as I was just happy the €25k was mine and no fees had to come out of that amount.
....
I was told an agreement letter would be issued to me from the defendant directly (as there was no insurance company involved) and this would be issued to me via my solicitor upon my solicitor receiving same.
I received the letter today and I am gutted to read that the total value of the case is infact €40k to include all legal fees and this was full and final payment etc. I cannot believe I (a) was not told the total sum my case was worth and (b) that my solicitor has taken €15k on fees when our agreed fee was €3500 when we began to pursue this case!!
Am I being unreasonable?! The case was very straight forward - no complications and when I called the office to query why €15k had been take. Off the sum awarded to me in was told that they were the fees incurred & that the snr council fees were €4k?!?! I'm in total shock as the snr council had no involvement in this until the day I met him in the corridor and there was no mention of him until that day..... How could he possibly charge €4k for less than one hours work?!

Anybody any advise?! I feel really ripped off and hurt.

The vast majority of cases settle outside the court rooms. It's where all the barristers will be during the day so its a good idea to work there.

It seems your side agreed to settle the case for 25k with a 15k contribution to costs, which they have accepted as full payment so you can get the 25k.

While you may not have met your barrister or SC, they both knew your case in detail.

littlemac1980

To be honest sounds to me that the Solicitor wasn't paid an awful lot - I expect there were a few years work involved, and if he only got 15K - less the Counsel Fees of 4K - less VAT, that sounds like a very small amount of fees for a High Court case that was only settled the day of the Trial.