Cost of solicitor

Youngblood.III

I need to see one, is 350e reasonable?
Thanks in advance :-)

Stheno

Youngblood.III wrote: »

I need to see one, is 350e reasonable?
Thanks in advance :-)

What are they charging you for?

Youngblood.III

Its 1st consultation....what should I expect at a consultation?
Thankd

Pat Mustard

Youngblood.III wrote: »

Its 1st consultation....

Often depends on what area of law you are talking about as well.

vicwatson

I thought first consultations were usually "free"?

Pat Mustard

vicwatson wrote: »

I thought first consultations were usually "free"?

For personal injury cases, that may be the case.

For consultations regarding other areas of law, this may not be the case.

goz83

I noticed a sign at my solicitors office recently, which said that first consultations are €60 inc vat.

Uno my Uno.

vicwatson wrote: »

I thought first consultations were usually "free"?

With ambulance chasers maybe.

We usually charge €75 + VAT for an initial consultation but generally that will be rolled into our fee if we are instructed. €350 sounds high but I don't know what the OP's situation is or what area of law is involved. It might be high specialised or it might include a certain amount of work that will be done.

Youngblood.III

Employment law area.....

hullaballoo

Shop around. It shouldn't be outrageous for a first consultation. If you're wasting their time, they will probably let you know subtly or otherwise.

MarkAnthony

I saw an excellent solicitor in D7 for an employment consult years ago. Initial consult was free. €350 sounds very high, are you perhaps coming across as more trouble than you're 'worth'? Seems a feck off fee although I've very limited experience.

That said if you were a director engaging Maples perhaps not, but Smith & Jones solicitors 'in the town' seems very high.

Youngblood.III

MarkAnthony wrote: »

I saw an excellent solicitor in D7 for an employment consult years ago. Initial consult was free. €350 sounds very high, are you perhaps coming across as more trouble than you're 'worth'? Seems a feck off fee although I've very limited experience.

That said if you were a director engaging Maples perhaps not, but Smith & Jones solicitors 'in the town' seems very high.

"Feck off fee” "More trouble than your worth" how can you deduct that from my posts? I ring up, ask for a consult, they tell me its 350e....

MarkAnthony I do not find your post informative or helpful in anyway.

Uno my Uno.

Youngblood.III wrote: »

"Feck off fee” "More trouble than your worth" how can you deduct that from my posts? I ring up, ask for a consult, they tell me its 350e....

MarkAnthony I do not find your post informative or helpful in anyway.

In fairness I think markanthony's post is very helpful.

Sometimes solicitors will quote prohibitive prices for work the don't feel is worthwhile although I don't think that is a very common practice, most solicitors would rather just politely decline to act. Some solicitors just have no idea about what is a reasonable fee and charge very high fees for no reason other than it is what they want to charge. Equally some solicitors charge very high fees because they are large or specialised firms and the can get away with such charges.

Given that €350 is a rather high consultation fee it is reasonable for markanthony to consider all possibilities which he does in his post. You asked was €350 a high consultation fee and the consensus here is that it is unless the work or firm is particularly specialised. Is you aren't happy with the fee shop around.

Youngblood.III

Uno my Uno. wrote: »

In fairness I think markanthony's post is very helpful.

Sometimes solicitors will quote prohibitive prices for work the don't feel is worthwhile although I don't think that is a very common practice, most solicitors would rather just politely decline to act. Some solicitors just have no idea about what is a reasonable fee and charge very high fees for no reason other than it is what they want to charge. Equally some solicitors charge very high fees because they are large or specialised firms and the can get away with such charges.

Given that €350 is a rather high consultation fee it is reasonable for markanthony to consider all possibilities which he does in his post. You asked was €350 a high consultation fee and the consensus here is that it is unless the work or firm is particularly specialised. Is you aren't happy with the fee shop around.

Now this sounds helpful
"some solicitors charge very high fees because they are large or specialised firms and the can get away with such charges"

MarkAnthony in my opinion makes incorrect generalizations about the query, which are also unhelpful.

Your post was helpful, thank you.

MarkAnthony

Youngblood.III wrote: »

"Feck off fee” "More trouble than your worth" how can you deduct that from my posts? I ring up, ask for a consult, they tell me its 350e....

MarkAnthony I do not find your post informative or helpful in anyway.

After I posted I read Hullaballoo's post and thought that I'd pretty much just repeated what he'd said, albeit in more vulgar terms, and considered deleting the post.

I'm sorry that you found the post unhelpful. As I stated in my post the fee seems very high, Uno my Uno has much more experience in these matters than I do and I would be guided by a fee of under €100 Inc VAT being reasonable. It's certainly the figure I've paid for professional services of say an accountant for a first consult.

In relation to solicitors I've never paid a fee for an initial consult, however I've not had cause to use one during the boom or during the recovery, worked for a few for free but that's beside the point!

My point in more detail is that if your problem seems especially pedantic, poorly thought through or you share the blame then a solicitor maybe thinking that they need to place a price on dealing with that. You may have been the victim of the world's worst injustice or have got your just deserts and are not sore about it. I have absolutely no idea, I make no judgement in that regard there is no information to suggest either.

Once again the purpose of my post was not to upset you, it was an attempt to be helpful, I'm sorry you did not find it so.

Uno my Uno.

MarkAnthony wrote: »

After I posted I read Hullaballoo's post and thought that I'd pretty much just repeated what he'd said, albeit in more vulgar terms, and considered deleting the post.

I'm sorry that you found the post unhelpful. As I stated in my post the fee seems very high, Uno my Uno has much more experience in these matters than I do and I would be guided by a fee of under €100 Inc VAT being reasonable. It's certainly the figure I've paid for professional services of say an accountant for a first consult.

In relation to solicitors I've never paid a fee for an initial consult, however I've not had cause to use one during the boom or during the recovery, worked for a few for free but that's beside the point!

My point in more detail is that if your problem seems especially pedantic, poorly thought through or you share the blame then a solicitor maybe thinking that they need to place a price on dealing with that. You may have been the victim of the world's worst injustice or have got your just deserts and are not sore about it. I have absolutely no idea, I make no judgement in that regard there is no information to suggest either.

Once again the purpose of my post was not to upset you, it was an attempt to be helpful, I'm sorry you did not find it so.

It's not really a case of whether the merits of a case are there or not it's more about how lucrative it is. For example We don't take any residential tenancy work simply because it doesn't pay well enough for the effort involved and time spent on that is time we can't spend doing better paying work. The extension of that is that if someone really really wanted us to do it we would but we would be charging a very high rate for that sort of work. Some people may consider that a "feck off fee" but that isn't how we would see it. It's a function of the fact that sometimes the fee doesn't justify the time it would require.