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Disclosure of fees ahead of advice?

  • 02-07-2015 3:30pm
    #1
    pog it
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,912 ✭✭✭


    I wrote to a solicitor with an outline of a possible case and asked if they would be interested in considering it with the view to taking it on.

    I did not expect any fee to be charged for this initial look at the case. But they are asking for fees already and have given me no real feel for whether or not I have a case, as well as an error-ridden summary with the facts I gave them mixed up all over the place.

    Are solicitors required by law to always tell a potential client up front about any fees? Or is it only after 500 euro in fees or a certain amount in fees have been exceeded that they have to disclose it?


Comments

  • #2
    Fred Swanson
    Closed Accounts Posts: 21,730 ✭✭✭✭Fred Swanson


    This post has been deleted.


  • #3
    hullaballoo
    Administrators, Entertainment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,774 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭hullaballoo


    Advising whether you have a statable case, its viability etc. are part of providing professional legal advice, for which most if not all professionals will charge short of some exceptional arrangement otherwise.

    Once you engage a solicitor - in this case, by writing to them seeking advice - you will more than likely start to incur fees. The rate will depend on the firm. If you have previously done business with that firm, you may already have agreed to their terms of business. This can be enough to comply with s.68 from the solicitors point of view.


  • #4
    pog it
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,912 ✭✭✭pog it


    hullaballoo wrote: »
    Advising whether you have a statable case, its viability etc. are part of providing professional legal advice, for which most if not all professionals will charge short of some exceptional arrangement otherwise.

    Once you engage a solicitor - in this case, by writing to them seeking advice - you will more than likely start to incur fees. The rate will depend on the firm. If you have previously done business with that firm, you may already have agreed to their terms of business. This can be enough to comply with s.68 from the solicitors point of view.

    I have not done business with them previously.

    I read the act and it is still unclear at what point they have to notify me of fees.


  • #5
    pog it
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,912 ✭✭✭pog it


    a solicitor shall provide the client with particulars in writing of—

    (a) the actual charges, or

    (b) where the provision of particulars of the actual charges is not in the circumstances possible or practicable, an estimate (as near as may be) of the charges, or

    (c) where the provision of particulars of the actual charges or an estimate of such charges is not in the circumstances possible or practicable, the basis on which the charges are to be made,

    There was a month between correspondences and none of those three conditions were satisfied.


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