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I was already feeling a bit down in the mouth today, just middle of the week blues, then BOOM! here comes my Gazette e-mail. It hasn't disappointed. Everything in it has made me sadder, less motivated and cross.

We have the SRA seeking to penalise a firm/solicitors for what is referred to as obscene overcharging, then only succeeding partially - then seeking £300k costs themselves. They say their costs will go to detailed assessment - and that's what happened with the firm's costs, and they were reduced substantially. Is it just me, or isn't that what DA is for? Why are we the only profession that can't charge what we like for our services, full in the knowledge that we will have to substantiate why we have charged that amount? Aren't we the ones that know how much it has set us back to provide that service in terms of manpower/office expenses/etc? Now, before everybody shoots me down, I'm not for one second saying we should be overcharging, but don't we need to ask what overcharging is? We ask for a figure, we get offered a different figure, we negotiate, we come away with an agreement that isn't what we asked for. On the next case, we get less, we get more - either way, again, the Defendant has had a chance to challenge the costs.
I truly don't understand what the hassle is about.
Beggars belief that the SRA can criticise the humble solicitor for doing exactly what it is doing!

Off to see how far I can stretch fixed costs on an RTA where the Defendant is refusing to answer any correspondence...