We’ve all heard stories about personal injury solicitors getting more money in fees than the person they represent receives in compensation, but this story really takes the biscuit.
Three years ago, a hairdresser was putting leaflets through letter-boxes when she was nipped on the finger by a dog. She got in touch with a no win no fee lawyer claiming she had suffered stress because of the incident. The solicitor contacted the owner of the dog and after lengthy negotiations the victim received £1,000 personal injury compensation.
You would have expected that to be the end of the matter, but then the dog’s owners received a bill from the hairdresser’s solicitor asking for £17,000! The husband has recently retired, his wife is aged 60 and they live in a modest £120,000 home. They could not afford to pay this bill and instead they sent their story to one of Britain’s national daily newspapers.
This did the trick to a certain extent and the £17,000 bill was reduced to £6,900. But that’s still a ridiculous amount to pay when you consider the compensation award was just £1,000 and the incident in question was a mere nip on the finger. And the couple still have to pay their own lawyer’s fee of £1,500.
Fat-cat lawyers are undoubtedly giving the entire legal profession a bad name and this practice of gross overcharging has to be stamped out as soon as humanly possible.