Solicitors Billing

[Barquentine]

Is a firm of solicitors allowed to record time spent on a matter by a paralegal at the same rate as the solicitor?
I querd my bill and they sent me a printout of the time recorded. It showed the solicitor's time spent, but then also time spent by her PA - who said she has a law degree but hasn't qualified and she said she's a paralegal.
I didn't know they were billing me for her time.

[buildersmate]

When you engaged the company, they should have sent you a contractual letter. This in turn ought to have outlined the scale of charges for each type (grade) of chargeable resources. Refer to that in the first instance.

A visit to a legal practice is a real eye-opener; these businesses have little clocks (or maybe some more advanced technology now) in place at the top pof the desk that the individuals switch over between client jobs that tracks to every 6 minutes (0.1hr). It means when they pick up the phone, they can start the appropriate charging clock.

[ummmm]

My accountant has one of those.

[Peter Pedant]

yes if you agreed to it.

£200 / hr is the going rate which is surely a good reason not to go to law throught a lawyer


They get audited by the way - chargeable timie and all that
if they are in the office and havent charged - they get a rocket