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My partner was involved in a motor accident in 2009 (back-ended by another motorist who admitted liability at the scene).
He received injuries from which he has still not fully recovered.
He appointed a solicitor to represent him in a compensation case. On the solicitors initial correspondence, in bold font, was the following sentence:
‘I hereby write to confirm that you personally will not be liable to discharge my legal costs and outlays and can further confirm that these will be paid to me by the third party’s insurance company’
A hearing date was finally arranged, and a preliminary meeting with the other was arranged for a few weeks prior to this.
My partner was met at meeting by his solicitor, and by both a senior and junior council. Following some private negotiations between the senior council and the insurance companies solicitor, a figure of €37,500 was settled on, which included accident compensation, loss of earnings etc. My partner was informed by both the solicitor and council that this offer was in the ballpark, and that he should accept it. He was informed that his costs would be paid by the insurance company in addition to this, and that he would receive a settlement of €37,500.
After he had verbally accepted this, he was informed that the insurance company would generally not pay all of the legal costs, but that he could be sure of receiving 90-95% of the settlement amount. This seemed an odd thing to be raised after he had accepted the settlement, but however, he verbally accepted that this would be ok.
A few weeks later he received correspondence from his solicitor outlining his Bill of Costs, which amounted to about €26,000, and stating that the insurance company proposed to pay only about €14,500 of this. The shortfall was mainly in legal expenses and medical expenses (solicitor claimed 14k, 8.5k proposed, senior council claimed 3k, 1.6k proposed, medical/physio reports and examinations claimed 1.8k, 0k proposed).
All other physio and medical costs paid by my partner were assumed to be included in the 37.5k.
The solicitor recommends that my partner proceed to Taxation of the Bill of Costs. I understand that this means that my partner will be obliged to pay for a specialist to compile his claim, and may have to pay stamp duty etc. on any additional monies which he receives.
My first impression was that the solicitors fees were quite high for an undisputed case which, as far as my partner is concerned, did not excessively tax the solicitors time.
In any case, my questions are as follows:
1. Is my partner in fact being asked, via the Tax Master, to pay for my solicitor to try to claim the remainder of his claimed fees? Surely this can’t be correct given the contents of his very first letter and his verbal confirmation on the day of the meeting?
2. Does anyone have any idea what the cost of proceeding to the Tax Master is likely to be?
3. Is there any information source or publicly accessible database regarding typical legal fees for cases of this kind available?
4. Any opinions (preferably legal) about where my partner should go from here?
5. Can my partner now actually reject the settlement and instruct the solicitor to proceed to court? We realise that this option throws the whole thing up in the air again and he may end up with a different settlement amount.
6. If he had rejected the settlement offer and proceeded to court in the first instance, and was awarded costs, could this dispute regarding costs still have happened?
Thanks and apologies for the long post.
He received injuries from which he has still not fully recovered.
He appointed a solicitor to represent him in a compensation case. On the solicitors initial correspondence, in bold font, was the following sentence:
‘I hereby write to confirm that you personally will not be liable to discharge my legal costs and outlays and can further confirm that these will be paid to me by the third party’s insurance company’
A hearing date was finally arranged, and a preliminary meeting with the other was arranged for a few weeks prior to this.
My partner was met at meeting by his solicitor, and by both a senior and junior council. Following some private negotiations between the senior council and the insurance companies solicitor, a figure of €37,500 was settled on, which included accident compensation, loss of earnings etc. My partner was informed by both the solicitor and council that this offer was in the ballpark, and that he should accept it. He was informed that his costs would be paid by the insurance company in addition to this, and that he would receive a settlement of €37,500.
After he had verbally accepted this, he was informed that the insurance company would generally not pay all of the legal costs, but that he could be sure of receiving 90-95% of the settlement amount. This seemed an odd thing to be raised after he had accepted the settlement, but however, he verbally accepted that this would be ok.
A few weeks later he received correspondence from his solicitor outlining his Bill of Costs, which amounted to about €26,000, and stating that the insurance company proposed to pay only about €14,500 of this. The shortfall was mainly in legal expenses and medical expenses (solicitor claimed 14k, 8.5k proposed, senior council claimed 3k, 1.6k proposed, medical/physio reports and examinations claimed 1.8k, 0k proposed).
All other physio and medical costs paid by my partner were assumed to be included in the 37.5k.
The solicitor recommends that my partner proceed to Taxation of the Bill of Costs. I understand that this means that my partner will be obliged to pay for a specialist to compile his claim, and may have to pay stamp duty etc. on any additional monies which he receives.
My first impression was that the solicitors fees were quite high for an undisputed case which, as far as my partner is concerned, did not excessively tax the solicitors time.
In any case, my questions are as follows:
1. Is my partner in fact being asked, via the Tax Master, to pay for my solicitor to try to claim the remainder of his claimed fees? Surely this can’t be correct given the contents of his very first letter and his verbal confirmation on the day of the meeting?
2. Does anyone have any idea what the cost of proceeding to the Tax Master is likely to be?
3. Is there any information source or publicly accessible database regarding typical legal fees for cases of this kind available?
4. Any opinions (preferably legal) about where my partner should go from here?
5. Can my partner now actually reject the settlement and instruct the solicitor to proceed to court? We realise that this option throws the whole thing up in the air again and he may end up with a different settlement amount.
6. If he had rejected the settlement offer and proceeded to court in the first instance, and was awarded costs, could this dispute regarding costs still have happened?
Thanks and apologies for the long post.
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