solicitor fee for court of protection

Johnny99

Registered User
Mar 3, 2016
3
0
My mother has dementia and as advised by Age UK I engaged a solicitor (recommended by Age UK) to arrange Court of Protection. After ~6 months this is now completed. However I have a query about the solicitor's proposed fee, I quote:

' the Letter of Engagement states "we estimate that our fees will not exceed the £850.00 + VAT as the Court fixes Solicitors' fees for general applications. However, if that estimate is exceeded, and the Order provides for parties to agree otherwise, we will ask for your agreement as to our costs or ask for our fees to be assessed by the Court".

At the date of writing this letter I conform that we have incurred £1900.00 of costs. I therefore propose charging £1500.00 + VAT for the work incurred.

I would be grateful if you could confirm whether you agree to our costs or if not, whether you would prefer to have the costs assessed by the Court. '​

As I have no experience with solicitors or the law I am unsure if this is reasonable / normal. I would point out that the doctor's assessment fee and court application fee have already been paid from my mother's funds and are not included in the solicitor fee. I am also not aware of any particular complication in the process that would cause to cause the fee to be more than double that initially estimated.

Any advice appreciated.
 

min88cat

Registered User
Apr 6, 2010
581
0
Hi Johnny, welcome to TP,

Just glancing quickly at the figures, this seems quite excessive to me, especially as all,the other fees have been paid separately! Was it just a Financial LPA, or a financial plus health and welfare?
 

nitram

Registered User
Apr 6, 2011
30,081
0
Bury
Looking at it another way.
They want to charge £1500
If you look at
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/solicitors-guideline-hourly-rates
and click at bottom of 'Contents' you will get an alphabetic listing of places, find yours and see what grade it is in.

Then look at the Guideline hourly rates table under the grade for the experience of the solicitor you instructed.

Divide 1500 by the hourly rate, does the resulting number of hours seem reasonable?

These guidelines are issued by HM Courts & Tribunals Service and I would think will be the ones any court decision is based on.

Does asking the court to arbitrate involve paying a fee?

EDIT
If you live in London look at London Grades not the search.
 
Last edited:

Beate

Registered User
May 21, 2014
12,179
0
London
The OP mentions court of protection so I'm assuming this is a deputyship and not an LPA. I'm actually really scandalised that Age UK would not have helped fill in the forms for free instead of advising you to hire an expensive solicitor. These forms can usually be filled in on your own or with the help of charities or the CAB. I would not agree to these costs and ask what made them so high. I have no idea whether the court would agree with you or them when assessing the costs but if this was a straightforward process without any complications, they should have kept to their estimate, which is high enough!
And just out of curiosity ask Age UK why they never recommended any of the free help available. Even here we would have helped you fill it in!
 

min88cat

Registered User
Apr 6, 2010
581
0
That's a useful bit of information Nitram!

Just to add that any bills for the work our Solicitor carried out were accompanied by a spreadsheet which showed how much time had been spent on emails/letters/phone calls. Even a 10 minute phone conversation was recorded as a % of the hourly rate.
 

balloo

Registered User
Sep 21, 2013
227
0
northamptonshire
My mother has dementia and as advised by Age UK I engaged a solicitor (recommended by Age UK) to arrange Court of Protection. After ~6 months this is now completed. However I have a query about the solicitor's proposed fee, I quote:

' the Letter of Engagement states "we estimate that our fees will not exceed the £850.00 + VAT as the Court fixes Solicitors' fees for general applications. However, if that estimate is exceeded, and the Order provides for parties to agree otherwise, we will ask for your agreement as to our costs or ask for our fees to be assessed by the Court".

At the date of writing this letter I conform that we have incurred £1900.00 of costs. I therefore propose charging £1500.00 + VAT for the work incurred.

I would be grateful if you could confirm whether you agree to our costs or if not, whether you would prefer to have the costs assessed by the Court. '​

As I have no experience with solicitors or the law I am unsure if this is reasonable / normal. I would point out that the doctor's assessment fee and court application fee have already been paid from my mother's funds and are not included in the solicitor fee. I am also not aware of any particular complication in the process that would cause to cause the fee to be more than double that initially estimated.

Any advice appreciated.
i would say about right as whe sorted POA for my MIL for myself ad my husbad was £1800 but if she was to far gone to sign to say she agreed it would of goe to court of protectio and would of doubled
 

Norfolkgirl

Account Closed
Jul 18, 2012
514
0
I don't want to publicly name the solicitor as I have no idea if this is reasonable. Just want to get some advice on what is the norm in such cases.

I've got some advice for you which I don't want to publish. Private message me via Talking Point.
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,445
0
Kent
Advice from Moderators

Anyone taking legal or financial advice which is offered by private message , and which is considered inappropriate to be posted on the open forum, does so at their own risk.