Solicitors And Claims

[jennyjoan]

How much does a solicitor receive for a £200,000 settled claim in Northern Ireland?

[Peter Pedant]

it all depends
on the contract of service for the plaintiff

his fee will depend on the no hours he and his bag carriers have spent on the case - the defendant can apply to have the bill "taxed" -which is examined by a judge ( technical)

[barry1010]

Depends on many things including the terms of the contract between solicitors and client, hourly rate and billing methods. Impossible to guess how many billable hours, how many times he went to court, if he did. Also the amount disbursements he had to pay to third parties

[Canary42]

Too much

[bobbinwales]

How much is to much canary, what should they get. Presumarbly not do it for nothing?

[jennyjoan]

thanks for your answers - Barry what is amount disbursements to third parties.

[barry1010]

JJ, a solicitor may have to pay third parties for their services, such as medical experts. Disbursements also include the cost of copies of police reports, copies of medical records, court fees - the list is endless especially as you haven't stated the nature of the claim.

[barry1010]

Another thought on this, JJ. If the claim was on a 'no win, no fee' basis the solicitors charges are often much higher than a traditional contract.

[Buenchico]

Although some solicitors work on a commission basis (especially if they're employed on a 'no win, no fee' basis), many others simply charge for their time.

In the latter case, a solicitor's fee might be quite low if he/she has only had to write one letter, threatening legal action, before the debtor pays up. However if he/she has hand to spend hours looking up relevant precedents and then submitting them to the debtor's solicitor (only to receive back counter arguments), examining and analysing documents such as contracts and invoices, submitting documents to the court and then appearing there in person, (etc, etc), his/her fees could be vastly more.

[jennyjoan]

ok - thanks for that and now the final question - how long after the claim has been settled should the claimant wait for the money?

At the moment it is going into its 9th week. Thanks again for your replies.

[Buenchico]

If the claim was settled in court, the court will normally have specified a time period within which the debt should be settled (which is often 14 days if the court has ruled that there should be a single payment, rather than separate staged ones). After that time, the creditor can return to court to seek enforcement action.

If the claim was settled out of court, then (unless the settlement specifically stated a time frame for repayment) there's no set period for repayment. If the creditor hasn't received payment within a period that's reasonable under the circumstances (which I would suggest is likely to be considerably less than 9 weeks), he/she can write to the debtor with a demand for payment within a specified period of time from that demand (such as 7 days). The demand should clearly state that, if payment is not received within the specified period, a court order for payment will then be sought.

[jennyjoan]

Thanks all for answers