By law, your solicitor must give you information about your legal charges – the money you must pay them for their services. The law that deals with this matter is section 150 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015.

Information you should receive

The information you will be given will be as follows: 

• Legal costs to date,
• Fixed costs which will certainly be included in your final bill – e.g. Court fees, Land Registry fees,
• Likely costs - e.g. barristers’ fees,
• VAT to be charged,
• The basis of how the costs are to be calculated,
• The duty to issue a new notice once the solicitor becomes aware of factors that would likely lead to significantly greater costs,
• The duty to inform the client of the likely costs of engaging a barrister or expert witness, if the need arises, and to be satisfied about the client’s approval for doing so,
• A period of time during which legal services will not be provided effectively (a ‘cooling-off period’) that cannot be longer than ten working days.

Legal Charges Guide

For more information about how charges for legal services are incurred, see the Legal Services Regulatory Authority Legal Charges guide.