Solicitor Fees

babyteeth

I rang up a local solicitor to get some advice about a family matter....
was quoted 150 quid to get an appointment with the solicitor. Is that fee reasonable ?

teggers5

Depends on location I'd imagine.
I paid €120 recently for a solicitor and that included initial meeting and 2 letters.

Uno my Uno.

Depends on the the Solicitor and the matter. so many people seek to take advantage of free consultations to get free legal advise that most Solicitors will insist on a consultation charge.

babyteeth

I am in county Wicklow. It will be €150 plus VAT. I am just seeking some advice
I know the phrase "talk to a solicitor" is bandied about a lot, its not easy for people to be forking out the fees always though!

teggers5

I thought the same when I heard how much it'd cost but it turned out to be the best €120 I'd ever spent!
Did you price a couple of solicitors?

Uno my Uno.

babyteeth wrote: »

I am in county Wicklow. It will be €150 plus VAT. I am just seeking some advice
I know the phrase "talk to a solicitor" is bandied about a lot, its not easy for people to be forking out the fees always though!

And unfortunately Solicitors can't be handing out advice for free. I would shop around a little first and satisfy yourself that this solicitor is an expert in family law.

teggers5 wrote: »

I thought the same when I heard how much it'd cost but it turned out to be the best €120 I'd ever spent!
Did you price a couple of solicitors?

A common sentiment after getting legal advice.

babyteeth

Uno my Uno. wrote: »

And unfortunately Solicitors can't be handing out advice for free. .

I am not asking for free. But I can get a consultation with my doctor for €60, who is a much higher trained professional than a solicitor

hullaballoo

babyteeth wrote: »

I am not asking for free. But I can get a consultation with my doctor for €60, who is a much higher trained professional than a solicitor

How long do you get with your doctor for your €60? 10 minutes and you're doing well. Solicitors, doctors and accountants are all trained to the same level.

?Cee?view

babyteeth wrote: »

I am not asking for free. But I can get a consultation with my doctor for €60, who is a much higher trained professional than a solicitor

What?!

Grolschevik

babyteeth wrote: »

But I can get a consultation with my doctor for €60

And then you'll most likely have to fork out for your prescription, too.

Courtesy Flush

Grolschevik wrote: »

And then you'll most likely have to fork out for your prescription, too.

In fairness a prescription is a medical product sold by a chemist , the consultation fee was the point.
And no doubt people have to pay for the documentation and letters that solicitors produce too

Grolschevik

Courtesy Flush wrote: »

In fairness a prescription is a medical product sold by a chemist , the consultation fee was the point.
And no doubt people have to pay for the documentation and letters that solicitors produce too

True. Just making the point that the simplistic comparison was... eh, simplistic!

Courtesy Flush

?Cee?view wrote: »

What?!

Why is it cheaper to have a medical consultation than a legal one. In the world of "professional fees"

Grolschevik

Courtesy Flush wrote: »

Why is it cheaper to have a medical consultation than a legal one. In the world of "professional fees"

Volume? A GP will see about four people an hour at €60 a pop.

Uno my Uno.

babyteeth wrote: »

I am not asking for free. But I can get a consultation with my doctor for €60, who is a much higher trained professional than a solicitor

I take exception to that, Solicitors' spend years and years training as do Doctors, to suggest that a Doctor is somehow more of a professional is unfair.

Courtesy Flush wrote: »

Why is it cheaper to have a medical consultation than a legal one. In the world of "professional fees"

Its not cheaper to have a medical consultation than a legal one, its significantly more expensive. 10 minutes with your GP will cost you E60, thats E244 an hour (ex VAT), not far from twice what the OP was quoted for a consultation which they should expect to take an hour. Go see a medical consultant and you can expect those fees to multiply.

Quite why people fail to value Legal advice is beyond me, you are paying for their knowledge and skill, it has taken years of hard work to accumulate that knowledge but people resent paying for it. Paying for a Doctor's knowledge and skill however is no problem.

Youngblood.III

I know a friend recently paid 360e to see a employment law solicitor...its a complex case and requires a good employment law type of solicitor.

Hunchback

As the poster said above, if you are getting specialist (boutique?) advice you are looking at a consultation fee of north of €350.00 plus VAT

Well, that is the going rate where I work.

Hope that makes you feel better

babyteeth

I have tried about 6 or 7 different solicitors in my area and the variation in quotes is considerable. There doesnt appear to be any standard. Are fees just made up ?

?Cee?view

babyteeth wrote: »

I have tried about 6 or 7 different solicitors in my area and the variation in quotes is considerable. There doesnt appear to be any standard. Are fees just made up ?

If they were all the same you'd probably argue that there's a cartel :rolleyes:

Mr. Incognito

babyteeth wrote: »

I have tried about 6 or 7 different solicitors in my area and the variation in quotes is considerable. There doesnt appear to be any standard. Are fees just made up ?

There is no standard fee because there is no standard solicitor.

You are not only paying for the "advices" but also paying for the experience of the solicitor. If you are seeking family law advices and want an expert they will charge more for that expertise.

If you are calling a general practice that only dabbles in it you will pay less but may get worse services and not the same level as expertise.

Jeffrey Archer used to write in his books that it never pays in the long run to hire a cheap lawyer. I would have to agree.

Larger Firms will bill anywhere from €150-€300 an hour for a junior solicitor. They can charge this because these firms have experts in every area that junior solicitor can leverage. They can call up an expert in that area and run the advices by them and consult colleagues.

Family law is a very specialised area. You will need someone who is a skilled negotiator and can deal with unreasonable people. My own experience of family law is you are automatically dealing with at least one unreasonable person because if they were both reasonable people they would be able to sort most of the matters out between them. Relationship break ups are generally messy and emotovie however so you need a practical, impartial solicitor who knows what they are doing.

Doctors diagnose. They prescribe medication. They are trained to a high degree.

Solicitors gather information, apply the law and provide advices. They are trained to a high degree.

Comparing them is like comparing a man who grows flowers with a mechanic. They are totally different things.

From what I can see you want solicitors to have a set fee, regardless of experience, a free consultation, and to devalue their years of training and experience.

You want a cheap lawyer who can work miracles. They dont exist. You get what you pay for, if you want to pay peanuts, you will get a monkey.
There are plenty of shoddy lawyers and plenty of good ones. The good ones charge more because they can.

Pay a solicitor learn their cost. If you dont you will learn their value.

Nidgeweasel

babyteeth wrote: »

I am not asking for free. But I can get a consultation with my doctor for €60, who is a much higher trained professional than a solicitor

Lol.

Lux23

Myself and my partner needed legal advice urgently and it cost us €200. It really was the best €200 quid I ever spent, I was so grateful for the advice we received. We were able to implement everything he suggested ourselves so you may not need to spend anything else. He also sent us a letter that was very useful when dealing with the people who thought they were legally in the right. It really showed us that they were just being bullies.

To Elland Back

Check your House Insurance & Motor Insurance policies. Many have Legal Expenses cover which gives you access to a solicitor for opinion and support. The nature of your query is not restricted to home or car issues either

Mr. Incognito

To Elland Back wrote: »

Check your House Insurance & Motor Insurance policies. Many have Legal Expenses cover which gives you access to a solicitor for opinion and support. The nature of your query is not restricted to home or car issues either

But you are confined to their panel who are experts in house insurance and motor insurance mainly, not family law

logically

BETTER CALL SAUL!

hullaballoo

Hello again, 2013.

Courtesy Flush

Lux23 wrote: »

Myself and my partner needed legal advice urgently and it cost us €200. It really was the best €200 quid I ever spent, I was so grateful for the advice we received. We were able to implement everything he suggested ourselves so you may not need to spend anything else. He also sent us a letter that was very useful when dealing with the people who thought they were legally in the right. It really showed us that they were just being bullies.

Thats fine. If the exact same advice was €100 quid somewhere else would you still say it was the best €200 quid you ever spent ?

Frynge

Courtesy Flush wrote: »

Thats fine. If the exact same advice was €100 quid somewhere else would you still say it was the best €200 quid you ever spent ?

Your point is moot because if he was charged €100 or €400 he would not have any other advice with which to use as a comparison.

Acara

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

There is no standard fee because there is no standard solicitor.

You are not only paying for the "advices" but also paying for the experience of the solicitor. If you are seeking family law advices and want an expert they will charge more for that expertise.

If you are calling a general practice that only dabbles in it you will pay less but may get worse services and not the same level as expertise.

Jeffrey Archer used to write in his books that it never pays in the long run to hire a cheap lawyer. I would have to agree.

Larger Firms will bill anywhere from €150-€300 an hour for a junior solicitor. They can charge this because these firms have experts in every area that junior solicitor can leverage. They can call up an expert in that area and run the advices by them and consult colleagues.

Family law is a very specialised area. You will need someone who is a skilled negotiator and can deal with unreasonable people. My own experience of family law is you are automatically dealing with at least one unreasonable person because if they were both reasonable people they would be able to sort most of the matters out between them. Relationship break ups are generally messy and emotovie however so you need a practical, impartial solicitor who knows what they are doing.

Doctors diagnose. They prescribe medication. They are trained to a high degree.

Solicitors gather information, apply the law and provide advices. They are trained to a high degree.

Comparing them is like comparing a man who grows flowers with a mechanic. They are totally different things.

From what I can see you want solicitors to have a set fee, regardless of experience, a free consultation, and to devalue their years of training and experience.

You want a cheap lawyer who can work miracles. They dont exist. You get what you pay for, if you want to pay peanuts, you will get a monkey.
There are plenty of shoddy lawyers and plenty of good ones. The good ones charge more because they can.

Pay a solicitor learn their cost. If you dont you will learn their value.

This 'profession' makes it's own rules and is regulated by a body that is a complete joke. Other professionals including docs are not about hard cold cash. An ex aib CEO told me that money will always win out over justice and that is why we live in such a corrupt little country . I also know that the highest paid family law solicitor was hired and paid a huge sum of money by this CEO. When the truth emerged in court all that happened was that he came off record, apologised for knowingly working in conflict of interest case but having ruined the lives of a lot of people had no problem in pocketing 50,000 euro. It is shocking that servants of our courts are so corrupt. At least the bankers admit it was only ever about the cash and most of them wud be incapable of understanding even the concept of justice. So no standard solicitor, you get what u pay for and self regulated. A complete joke.

To Elland Back

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

But you are confined to their panel who are experts in house insurance and motor insurance mainly, not family law

No you are not. The legal expenses added to those policies provide access to advice to the policyholder on any domestic topic, not confined to insurance matters.

JustAThought

Get an appointment with the free lefal sid people who Ive always found to be really helpful - they are alll layers & in Dublin you can ask the central switch which places may have specialusts in X or Y & choose to try & book an sppointment there. They wont recommend a solicitor but once you outline your problem they may be able to shine a light on whether it is a straightforward matter which may be easy to resolve ( or possible tosort out yourself) or how messy it could be. Ive engaged solicitors a fee times & been really shocked at how much they can miss & how sloppy they can be. The costs have ranged from 3,800 for a done deal contract I wanted advice & help with extras on ( E380 per hour or part of & vat) -I got one extra) to e200 ( noreceipt or vat added given ) flowed by another e300 ( cash, no receipt given) for a sleibhin solicitor & his son in baggot St. who then told me I could do the paperwork he had been paid to do myself as it was simple & he never did what Id paid him in advance to do. If i had nt been so sick I'd have followed up but I was really not able at the time. Monster.
The third solicitor I used did a wishy washy job & missed something really important (25k) on shares - i met him & he had come from a late lunch & had had a glass of wine - which I'd commented on - again the contract was signed it was too late to fix the shares - i often wonder did his glass of wine cost me 25k. His fees were e800 - again, to structure a done deal.
Ive been far happier & more satusfied with FLAC advice. I would find it v hard to trust a solicitor again. Thrice bitten.,,