legal fees

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getaway

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A solicitor has asked to be paid up front for a case in the Circuit Court. Is this normal practice. He is looking for 8k, and says that a further 7k will be required. I have never heard of this before, so would appreciate any advice. The solicitor was recommended. Who has this kind of money these days.
 
find that odd alright. i know that some solicitor want a deposit (something like 400Euro) if the overall process costs a lot of money but not 8k.
 
getaway said:
A solicitor has asked to be paid up front for a case in the Circuit Court. Is this normal practice. He is looking for 8k, and says that a further 7k will be required. I have never heard of this before, so would appreciate any advice. The solicitor was recommended. Who has this kind of money these days.
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Go back to basics. Someone wants to take a case. There is always a chance that that person may lose their case. They may not be inclined to want to pay the costs of bringing the case on. Why should the solicitor take on the case unless they are guaranteed that they will be paid? More and more service providers are stipulating money up front. You want the service? You pay up front.

In the end , it is the plaintiff's case - not the solicitors. I have come across cases where it seems to me that there is a 50-50 chance of success or loss. I find that clients are more inclined to think the risks through if they have to stump up money in advance.

The old days of no foal, no fee are gone.

mf
 
It strikes me as unusual given that you don't know exactly what services you will be paying for. I always thought a solicitor was supposed to provide a writen bill of services.

There's also the risk that if you pay up front and he turns out to be useless and you want to change solicitor, will you get your money back?. at least if he hasn't been fully paid, he might be more incentivised to do his job properly

Without knowing the ins and outs of the case, it's hard to know if his fee is likely to be reasonable. However, if you're not comfortable, shop around
 
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