Conduct and service

Keep it accurateIs the initial costs information you give clients as comprehensive as it could or should be? The Solicitors Costs Information and Client Care Code 1999 requires, as practice rule 15 did before it, that clients be given 'best information'.

Some solicitors think this means it's enough to tell clients their firm's charge-out rate.

In fact, that has never been the case - on their own, hourly rates are meaningless.

They give the client no idea of the costs to be expected.Even in 2001, a few solicitors fail to give any costs information.

Such failures are often accompanied by other, aggravating, cost-related factors also covered by the regulations.In one such case, the client had instructed solicitors regarding potential divorce proceedings in which he would be the respondent.

At the end of the retainer, the solicitors rendered a bill that, together with the costs paid on account, totalled about double what the client had been expecting.

He complained.An inspection of the file revealed that at the outset, while the client had been told nothing about the prospective total costs, he had been asked to make a payment on account.

Three months later the solicitors gave an overall estimate for the divorce and ancillary matters and three months after that, the overall estimate was repeated.

The client then paid a further amount on account, which brought the costs paid on account to within 100 of the estimates.A further three months later the solicitor told the client that the costs already incurred exceeded the previous estimate by more than 100 and more costs would be incurred as the case was nowhere near finalisation.

The eventual total costs were more than double the estimates that had been given.To make matters worse, the client had asked about his eligibility for legal aid.

The solicitors had told him that before they could advise about that, they needed more information from him, but failed to say what.

They did not raise the issue again.The solicitors were ordered to pay compensation that effectively halved their fees, bringing them back down to the kind of figure originally quoted to the client and repeated in the later information.

The moral is to ensure that not only is costs information as accurate as is possible, but that it stays so throughout the retainer.l Every case before the compliance and supervision committee is decided on its individual facts.

These case studies are for illustration only and should not be treated as precedents.