A. You can raise your concerns directly with your solicitor. If your solicitor works in a large firm they may have a Managing Director or Office Manager who deals with cost and service issues. Many solicitors are prepared to explain or negotiate their costs. If you deal directly with your solicitor you may be able to quickly, and without incurring further legal costs, resolve the matter.

If you are unsure or unable to assess whether the account given to you by your solicitor is reasonable, you can request an itemised account within 6 months of being provided with the original account. The provision of the itemised account should be provided upon request at no cost to you.

The rate that you are charged for the legal work will depend on the retainer or cost agreement that you have with your solicitor. You may be charged on an hourly rate. If there is no cost agreement you should be charged on the court scale, relevant to your matter.

Once you have considered the itemised account together with the basis on which you agreed to be charged by your solicitor, if you have concerns about the work done you can raise those concerns directly with your solicitor.

If you are not able to resolve cost disputes directly with the solicitor, the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board has jurisdiction to deal with solicitor/client costs. You need to complete a complaint form setting out your concerns about the costs claimed by your solicitor and attach a copy of the account indicating which items are in dispute.

If you have any queries you can contact the Enquiry and Information Officer.

Q. If I am not happy with my solicitor, can I change solicitors?

A. If you are not happy with your solicitor you can change solicitors. You will need to terminate your instructions with your existing solicitor. You will need to request an account for work done to date. You will need to either pay or negotiate for the payment of the outstanding account. Once the account has been paid or arrangements made for the payment of the account you can collect your file or arrange for your file to be transferred to the new solicitor.

If you are not able to pay for the outstanding account with your previous solicitor you will need to make arrangements in respect of that account. Your new solicitor may be able to negotiate an agreement with the previous solicitor for payment of their account, which will be satisfactory to the previous solicitor and enable the file to be transferred to the new solicitor.

If you do not pay the outstanding account with the previous solicitor, the previous solicitor has a right to claim a lien over their file. If a solicitor claims a lien over the file this means that they can hold the file until the account is paid or satisfactory arrangements have been made for future payment of the account.

If you have any queries you can contact the Enquiry and Information Officer.

Q. What can I do if my solicitor takes legal action to recover their legal costs?

A. A solicitor is entitled to take legal action to recover their reasonably incurred legal costs. If legal proceedings are issued you may wish to obtain legal advice in relation to those legal proceedings.

If you have lodged a complaint with the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board in relation to your solicitor's costs the investigation of that complaint will usually be deferred while the matter is before the Court. The Court offers mediation to parties in an attempt to resolve the matter before it is listed for trial.

If both parties consent, and where appropriate, the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board can offer conciliation to resolve costs and service issues. Sometimes, if these issues are resolved at conciliation the issues in the legal action may also be resolved. Conciliation is voluntary.

Q. Do I have to pay for legal advice if I am not happy with that legal advice or the legal advice was incorrect?

A. The role of a legal practitioner is to give legal advice to their clients. The lawyer must seek to advance and protect the client's interests to the best of their skill and diligence and advise the client of their rights and obligations to ensure they have sufficient understanding of their legal position to instruct their lawyer as to which course of action to take. If you do not understand the legal advice given to you ask your lawyer to explain the advice again. It is possible that the lawyer will, and often does, give legal advice to their client, which the client may not be happy with. The solicitor has a right to charge for their service of providing legal advice in accordance with any cost agreement in place between the solicitor and client.

Generally a mistake or error of judgment by a lawyer will not ordinarily amount to misconduct unless it amounts to gross negligence or incompetence. The assessment of whether misconduct arises from gross negligence or incompetence on the part of the solicitor is determined on the facts of each case.

If you are unhappy with the legal advice or believe the legal advice resulted in extra costs being incurred, that is a matter that you may wish to raise with your lawyer.

Q Can the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board ensure that my solicitor follows my instructions and acts quickly and efficiently in my case?

A. The Legal Practitioners Conduct Board does not advocate on behalf of a client who is unhappy with the service provided by their lawyer. If you are concerned with delay in your matter, raise your concerns with the lawyer and if you have no response put your concerns in writing. If your solicitor is in a large or medium sized firm, there may be a Managing Director or Office Manager who will consider such issues.

Q. Can the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board advise me if a solicitor has a history of disciplinary matters to assist me in determining whether to get that solicitor to act on my behalf?

A. No. A legal practitioner's disciplinary history is confidential except when a matter is in the public domain, such as when disciplinary action against a lawyer is before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and the Supreme Court.

Click here for Frequently Asked Questions for lawyers.

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