Challenge your solicitor’s bill.

Disputes about solicitors’ fees are more common than most people realise. A final bill can be far higher than the estimate, include work you did not expect, or charge time that seems excessive. If that has happened to you, you may be able to have the bill checked by the court in a solicitor own client bill dispute, known as an assessment under the Solicitors Act 1974.

Our Costs Lawyers are specialists in legal costs and are regulated by the Costs Lawyer Standards Board. We review your bill, tell you honestly whether it is worth challenging, and can run the challenge for you.

Timing is critical. If you apply within one month of receiving a proper final bill, you are entitled to an order for assessment. After one month but within twelve months, the court may still order an assessment, but it can impose conditions, such as paying part of the bill first. Once twelve months have passed since you paid the bill, the court generally cannot order an assessment at all.

If you have only received interim bills, or the bill does not meet the legal requirements, the position can be different. That is one of the first things we check.

In a solicitor–client assessment the court applies the indemnity basis, with presumptions set out in CPR 46.9. Costs are presumed reasonable if you expressly or impliedly approved them, and unreasonable if they are unusual in nature or amount and you were not told they might not be recoverable from the other side.

So the key questions are what you agreed in your retainer and client care letter, what estimates you were given, and whether the work was reasonable. Inadequate estimates and poor communication can be powerful points in your favour.

The challenge is usually made by a Part 8 claim asking the court to order assessment. The solicitor then provides a breakdown of the bill, you serve points of dispute setting out your objections, and the solicitor can reply. Many cases settle at this stage once both sides see the strengths and weaknesses. If not, the court assesses the bill at a hearing.

Costs of the assessment matter too. The general rule is that if the bill is reduced by more than one fifth, the solicitor pays the costs of the assessment; if not, you usually pay. We weigh that risk carefully before advising you to proceed.

For clients, we review the bill, the retainer and the file, estimate the likely reduction and handle the negotiation or the court process. Often a well-argued letter leads to a reduction without any court claim. For solicitors, we defend bills, prepare breakdowns and advise on recovering unpaid fees. Read more about our solicitor–client assessment advocacy.

We work from our London office at 90 Paul Street and take instructions remotely from anywhere in England and Wales.