Served with a cost bill?

Your own solicitor has served you with a cost bill

Here at Nexus we act for clients who have been unexpectedly served with a cost bill from their own solicitor for services provided under a ‘no-win no-fee’ agreement (‘Conditional Fee Agreement’ or ‘CFA’). This often follows a breakdown in the relationship, often as a result of poor representation or inadequate service being provided by the solicitor, such that you wish to part ways. We are finding that all too often any attempts made by you to remove their services will lead to them demanding costs from you.

Rarely, a solicitor may also pursue you after your claim has succeeded, as they would demand payment as a result of a successful claim. In such a scenario you should make contact before any agreement is reached with the Defendant so that you can seek include the issue of costs in final order/agreement.

However, the far more frequent situation is when your solicitor cancels the retainer/agreement you have with them and then pursues you for their costs spent on the case. Our clients are usually surprised since they entered into a ‘no-win no-fee’ agreement (Conditional Fee Agreement) and were informed that no costs would be payable to the solicitor if the case did not succeed.

Such situations require careful analysis of any contract/agreement that you signed, as well as all correspondence between you and your solicitor. The key issues for us to determine are the terms of your contract and whether any breaches have in fact occurred. Almost always, the Solicitor will allege that you have failed to comply with your obligations under any agreement/contract/retainer, thus entitling them to terminate the agreement and make a claim against you for their costs.

As you will see from some of our cases/clients in the past (link this) we have successfully opposed the solicitors demands for their costs.

So please do get in touch using our free very simple no obligation contact form as soon as possible, as the earlier we can begin the better the chances we have of helping you.