Lawyers Fees

I have been charged over double what was originally agreed by my lawyer in final  fees.. Unfortunately apart from the structure of the start up fees (what it would cost to start proceedings against the bank..and if it went to court) I have nothing in writing...it was a verbal conversation and when asked how much would they take off for their fees at the end..I was told "its usually about 10%." ...we won our case but not costs..now our lawyer has charged more than double what we were told...apparantley its because they are regulated by the bar association and have to charge this amount.. No mention of bar association rates have ever been mentioned up to this point...

I have done a small amount of research into this, I plan to delve deeper, but so far I have found that the lawyer and client can agree a fee, which is nothing to do with the bar association...until there is a dispute between lawyer and client, in which case bar association rates apply...I take this to mean that there is no reason why my lawyer cannot honour the original verbal agreement fee that we made..

Wondering if anyone else has any experience of this or any lawyer on here can clarify the fee position, before I get in touch with the relevant bar association to ask the question myself..

My only comment to you at this stage is the following experience.

After asking for a quotation for fees, and then asking again when I was not able to fully understand the first quotation, I exchanged e mails to clarify  I was reading the quote properly.

At the end of proceedings and after the case is concluded I am not able to understand the fees charged to me,  because they are much higher than anticipated.

I have arrived st the conclusion that the quotation for the work is given in a way that you can’t understand and the final charges are made in a way that you can’t understand either.  If I were in my own country and my lawyer was in my own country, I would have been quoted in a way I could understand and the final charge could be challenged if it was not made out in a way that can be understood.

In every way our experience in Spain has been poor and the people dealing with us have been pretty arrogant.   It seems to be the culture and I’m glad to get away from it.

im having an accountant look over the bill over here in the next couple of weeks and having my own solicitor comment.   I reckon I won’t get anywhere tho, so good luck to you in your own experience.

Briando it does seem like quite a few people are having the same experience...it is so unfair, they seem to have no empathy at all for what we have gone through and what we have lost!!! I do beleive the lawyers should be paid for their experience and the work they do on our behalf. however an agreement even verbally should be honored in my opinion..

Well, it's a year since we were told the appeal for our costs would be going to the Supreme Court in Madrid but still no date fixed.  The court agent in Madrid was paid last year !!

Joyjo

Joyjo

This could be really important for ALL claimants going forward. Has this appeal by the Bank been accepted by the SC for admission? There is a distinct difference between submission of an appeal to the SC and admittance by the SC.

It appears to be taking a long time for the SC to even decide if appeals are to be admitted let alone resolved once admitted, and the Banks are taking advantage of this delay....playing the system of delays in the hope that in the interim lengthy periods they can create sufficient elements of doubt that compromise judicial rulings going forward.

Have you been advised what are the exact grounds upon which the Bank are challenging your costs and does your legal team consider this challenge to be of much wider significance to the ongoing award of costs by the judiciary? Perhaps worthwhile you asking for clarification from your legal team and a copy of the Bank appeal?

In other words does this challenge by the Bank compromise ALL claimants award of costs going forward so long as this Bank appeal to the SC remains unresolved and an element of doubt exists?

At what point in the legal procedure was the Banks appeal submitted?...was it at the point that your legal team submitted their calculations to the procedure for return of costs as per your successful ruling, or at some other point in the legal process? 

Could your legal team have made some error in their calculation of costs when they requested return of costs as per your successful judicial ruling against the Bank?

Many questions I’m afraid.

Hi Ads

As far as I know, SGR eventually paid the interest but appealled against the original appeal for the costs. Feels like a delaying tactic. I have to assume it has been accepted by the court when we were asked to pay the court agent in Madrid last year.

I emailed my legal team last week asking if they had a date yet for court but they hadn't and would let us know when they did.

Joyjo

Has anyone heard anything about pending Supreme Court cases in Madrid?

Joyjo

Is anyone else waiting g to hear about a pending case in Madrid court?

Joyjo

Hi,

We won our case back in October 2016 .we were awarded return of full deposit plus legal interest.

 We were not awarded costs and our solicitor lodges an appeal in January 2018.  We still await the decision and I did request an update from our solicitor this  January 2019.

This was the reply from our solicitor. :-

Please bear in mind that the High Court process does not work the same way than the first instance process.

We have to wait for the High Court to issue a resolution, and meanwhile there are no hearings or any further notifications from them, so we will be able to give you an update as soon as they officialy notify this resoltuion (bear in mind that the High Court is a unique Court in Spain, so usually the time for them to issue a resolution is around 1-3 years time.

You can be sure that we will get in touch with you as soon as we have any news about it.

Kind Regards,

So so we too await decision having paid upfront retainer fee.

Best of Luck.

Hi Broph

That's the same reply we received last year. Our appeal was put forward in 2017, nearly 2 years ago, so I guess it's just a waiting game.

Thanks

Joyjo

There is a difference between submission of an appeal and admittance of that appeal into SC, each with it’s own timeframe, so have you been informed if the appeal has been admitted ( accepted) by the SC and is now awaiting a ruling, or could you still be waiting to find out if the appeal has been allowed for admission?

The easy answer to that is "Don't know".  Just assumed it had been accepted when we had to pay the court agent.

Joyjo

Just heard S Court has rejected the banks appeal against costs.  So fingers crossed, things may soon be over and done with.

Joyjo

Well done!

Just one outstanding query....do you know if this was rejected due to the Bank appeal not being allowed to be admitted into Supreme Court for an actual ruling, based upon technical grounds ( which might have taken a couple of years before this was decided upon), or was it actually admitted into the SC court and the SC ruling subsequently went against the Bank, adding towards SC doctrine?

This is important, in order to understand if a SC ruling actually achieved clarification on a point of law associated with award of costs, which would subsequently benefit others, or if the appeal was dismissed prior to admission, which would not add to SC doctrine / clarification.

Could your lawyer advise to assist transparency? It would be really useful to know if SC doctrine or clarification has been achieved going forward.

Thanks and congratulations to you and your legal team.

All I can say without bother Ing the lawyers is, we wait 20 days until the decision is firm. Then the edict is sent to the magistrates court and the original court we attended. Then the lawyer will ask for money.

Joyjo