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I am writing this as a word of caution to all the fortunate men who have been found not guilty. If you are awarded costs by the court please ensure that you sit down with the solicitor and agree in detail the amounts you have paid and discover exactly what they intend to claim from the court on your behalf. My husband and I did not do this and we are paying the price now. It is so easy in the euphoric aftermath of the worst experience of your life to set such mundane matters aside but it is vital that you keep a record of all invoices and payments made.
My husband was found not guilty in December 2011 and was awarded costs. Our solicitor made the application to the court without us checking it (we paid all cost ourselves and did not receive any legal aid). In May this year we queried why we had not been reimbursed yet. After various telephone calls (most of the time our call were not returned and we felt that the accounts department were being evasive) to the Solicitor’s accounts office we were told that they had received £16000 and a further £4000 was in dispute. The accountant wanted to accept this quickly to ‘clear things up’. We were astounded as we had proof that we had paid £27000 to the solicitors. After some checking the figure was revised upwards to £24500 which we were again urged to accept. We met with the solicitor to query the shortfall and were told that this represented the deductions made by the court. We had been given the time sheets sent to the court and were able to see lots of deductions for 10 or 15 minutes of time (at £450 an hour that adds up to an awful lot of money!) We asked for a final invoice which still has not been forthcoming and asked why the court had made deductions as it appeared that the solicitors had overcharged us. We were told that had my husband been found guilty the Solicitors would have then chased us for a further £9000 !
Is this normal practice – we feel that if we have been awarded cost then we should be reimbursed for all of our costs. Every time we were asked for money by the solicitor we paid it promptly but we feel aggrieved that we have lost £2500 through no fault of our own.
My husband was found not guilty in December 2011 and was awarded costs. Our solicitor made the application to the court without us checking it (we paid all cost ourselves and did not receive any legal aid). In May this year we queried why we had not been reimbursed yet. After various telephone calls (most of the time our call were not returned and we felt that the accounts department were being evasive) to the Solicitor’s accounts office we were told that they had received £16000 and a further £4000 was in dispute. The accountant wanted to accept this quickly to ‘clear things up’. We were astounded as we had proof that we had paid £27000 to the solicitors. After some checking the figure was revised upwards to £24500 which we were again urged to accept. We met with the solicitor to query the shortfall and were told that this represented the deductions made by the court. We had been given the time sheets sent to the court and were able to see lots of deductions for 10 or 15 minutes of time (at £450 an hour that adds up to an awful lot of money!) We asked for a final invoice which still has not been forthcoming and asked why the court had made deductions as it appeared that the solicitors had overcharged us. We were told that had my husband been found guilty the Solicitors would have then chased us for a further £9000 !
Is this normal practice – we feel that if we have been awarded cost then we should be reimbursed for all of our costs. Every time we were asked for money by the solicitor we paid it promptly but we feel aggrieved that we have lost £2500 through no fault of our own.