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Litigation Fees

We understand that cost is a very real consideration for anyone deciding whether or not to seek legal advice and in terms of who to instruct. Drummond Miller LLP has always tailored its services to families, individuals and small enterprises rather than large corporate entities, and our pricing structure reflects this.

Overview

Our skilled litigation team act for a variety of clients in a wide range of legal disputes ranging in value from under £5000 to multi-millions. This guidance only relates to the fees we charge to individuals who instruct us in a dispute which arises wholly or mainly outside of that person’s trade, business, craft or profession.

Typical types of proceedings that we undertake for consumer clients include (but are not limited to):

  • court actions for payment of a sum of money
  • court actions to enforce a legal right or remedy
  • we also act in public law matters, for example judicial reviews of a public body’s decision or at public inquiries.

The details set out in this guidance is illustrative only and not to be taken as imparting legal advice to you. For legal advice on your actual circumstances, please speak to your usual Drummond Miller contact or else contact our litigation team.

Costs – hourly rates

Our fees are charged on an hourly basis. Our current hourly rates range from £140 to £325. These hourly rates are exclusive of VAT which is chargeable, in addition, at a rate of 20%:

  • Partner - £325
  • Consultant – £300
  • Senior Associate - £280
  • Associate - £250
  • Senior Solicitor - £220
  • Solicitor - £200
  • Trainee - £180
  • Paralegal - £160
  • Parliament House Clerk - £140

Your case will always be handled by a member of our team at the appropriate level of seniority, under supervision of a more senior solicitor if necessary. If you request a more senior solicitor handle your case, then the cost of instructing us will increase.

We may undertake legal aid work in certain circumstances.

In some cases, we may be able to offer to act on a “no win, no fee” basis. This means that our fees are only paid if your claim is successful and by the defender rather than you. If your claim is unsuccessful, you do not pay our fees. Depending on the terms agreed, you may be liable to pay our outlays even if you are unsuccessful, unless you have litigation-funding or after-the-event insurance in place.

Outlays

In addition to our fees, you will also become liable for any outlays incurred. Typical court outlays include (but are not limited to) court fees, shorthand writer’s fees, sheriff officer fees or expert witness fees.

Court fees do not incur VAT, but all other outlays will require VAT to be added at the current rate of 20%. We will arrange payment of any outlays on your behalf, but we will typically require you to make a payment to us to cover more substantial outlays before they are incurred, such as an advocate’s fees or an expert witness’s fees.

Advocates

There are circumstances where it may be necessary or advantageous to you to instruct an advocate (also known as counsel (or a “barrister” in England). Unless an advocate is necessary (e.g. because the action has been raised in the Court of Session), we will only ever so instruct their services with your prior agreement. Advocates are wholly independent from our law firm and their fees are charged in addition to our own fees. We will provide you with an hourly or day rate for the cost of instructing an advocate if the need arises.

When we have agreed to act for you on a “no win / no fee” basis, any Advocate we instruct on your behalf will be asked to act on the same basis.

Expert witnesses

Some cases may require the instruction of an expert witness. If your case requires an expert witness to be instructed, then we will discuss that with you before doing so.  Expert witnesses will be professional individuals who have a level of expertise in their professional field, for example an expert accountant or an expert surveyor. Like advocates, they are wholly independent from us. We will provide you with a quote for their fees prior to instructing them on your behalf.

When we have agreed to act for you on a “no win / no fee” basis, it may be that we are able to put funding in place so that you do not have to meet the cost of any experts instructed on your behalf and so will not be liable for those costs, whether successful or not. 

Typical cost of a litigation

It is not possible to give an accurate assessment as to the cost of the litigation at the outset.  That is because there are a number of factors which may impact upon the cost and every case is different.

Defended actions

If an action is defended, then the unpredictability of a litigation means it is not possible to accurately estimate the cost of a defended action in advance.

However, if we were to take as an example the following:

  • a straightforward action for payment of a debt of £50,000;
  • taking around a year to get to a full hearing;
  • with no procedural delays or technical legal arguments;
  • which does not require an advocate or an expert witness to be instructed; and
  • takes one day in court for the full evidential hearing

This may incur a typical fee of at least £20,000 exclusive of VAT at 20% and court and other outlays.

A complex case or even a straightforward case that requires more days in court will incur higher fees.  It would not be unusual for fees in a complex case to be a substantial five-figure sum, plus VAT at 20%, plus outlays.

Procedural stages

All defended litigations progress in procedural stages.  This allows us to continuously assess the economic benefits of proceeding with the litigation. We may require you to make payment for work done up to a particular stage before we can accept instructions to progress a case to the next stage.

Undefended actions

As a typical guide, an action commencing in the sheriff court which is not defended, may cost around £2,000 plus VAT at 20% and court outlays to obtain the court order (judgment) for payment.  An undefended court order in the Court of Session will be more expensive as you may also need to pay for an advocate to undertake some of the work.

Court-awarded expenses

In court proceedings (with the exception of personal injury and medical negligence claims), the general rule is that whoever wins the litigation will be awarded the expenses of the litigation. These expenses are called “judicial expenses” as they are awarded by the court.

Judicial expenses are different to the legal fees and outlays discussed above, which you require to pay to us throughout the duration of your court action. The value of judicial expenses is around 50% to 60% of what you actually spend on your legal fees and outlays. This shortfall is deliberate as judicial expenses are set against a fixed judicial scale which means not all work undertaken by your solicitors will be recoverable as judicial expenses. In some cases, we can try to close the gap between your legal spend and the recovery from the other side, but that is not always an option and it depends on the circumstances of the case which we will discuss with you.

This means that, even if you are successful in litigation, you are likely to still be out of pocket as you will not be able to recover all of your legal fees and outlays from the unsuccessful party.

The opposite is also true if you, unfortunately, lose the litigation. The award of judicial expenses against you is typically around 50% to 60% of what your opponent has spent, but the other party might also try to close that gap to make a greater recovery if the circumstances allow.

In some court proceedings and Tribunals, judicial expenses are not awarded which means that both parties need to pay for their own fees and outlays, or they are capped at a fixed amount.

For personal injury and medical negligence claims, the general rule is that even if you are unsuccessful you will not have to pay the expenses of the defender.

Payments to account

Where we are instructed by you for the first time, we typically require you to make a payment to account for future fees and outlays.

The level of the payment to account depends on the nature of your dispute and what you are instructing us to provide advice upon. Typical payments to account range from £500 exclusive of VAT at 20% to £5000 exclusive of VAT at 20% in cases where, say, urgent interim court orders require to be obtained on your behalf.

Details of any payment to account will be discussed with you during our initial meeting or call.  Our letter of engagement and terms of business will set out how such payment is to be paid and by when.

As discussed above under “Outlays”, we may require you to make further payments to account to cover on-going fees or outlays.  Again, we shall always discuss that with you in advance of requesting further payments.

Timing of payment of fees

We aim to issue interim invoices to you on a regular basis (usually monthly or quarterly) in order that you are aware of the cost of the legal advice at all times. This allows you to keep on top of your legal fees and raise any issues with us at the earliest opportunity.