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Quite right, Christopher Gough. Personally, I am not the greatest fan of the Legal Ombudsman, but on this occasion what they say is what we are obliged to do anyway!

Saying that, I have clients who come to me when they feel they've been overcharged by their previous solicitors, and almost without exception the previous solicitors completely ignore their obligations under the Code and Handbook regarding costs estimates. Which is handy for my clients as it gives them good grounds to win on a solicitor and own client detailed assessment (and / or provides special circumstances under section 70(3) Solicitors Act 1974 to get an out of time assessment).

The usual line I see is putting a random estimate in the client care letter that corresponds with how much they think the client will stand. And then continuing to milk the client thereafter without reference to that original estimate (neither updating it, not trying to keep within it, nor expressly saying "look, things have changed now, we recommend to do XYZ, but it's going to cost more").

Real life examples include a magistrates court case where client was charged with taking steps to get out of parking tickets. Original estimate - £5,000. Actual final bill - £62,000. (and result of this £62,000 was he ended up with a fine and costs order, which we would have got had he entered a guilty plea on the first occasion).

Or another one where a business partner had fell out with another one and was sending emails he didn't like criticising him. Quote to client (it was a fixed price quote) for in effect writing a letter to put a sock it in - £1,750. Actual final bill - £6,000.

And so on.

And the usual defence is "the matter was complex and we had to do more work than expected." And when we ask them to provide a copy of the communication to the client to explain this, and providing an updated estimate of costs and time, the reply is invariably "why should we tell the client, he already knew it was complex, and it's his fault for continuing to instruct us". Sadly for them, the Senior Courts Costs Office disagrees!

So this time the Legal Ombudsman is right. Stuck clock I suppose.