1. See "Cook on Costs- information about hourly rates and extras etc. (See Book List)
2. The fees charged depend upon the status of the fee earner. The fee earner may be a solicitor or qualified Legal Executive, i.e.Fellow - check with ILEX, who also issue practising certificates. He may just be a trainee solicitor or trainee legal executive, i.e. clerk, although called a "legal executive" which can be very misleading.
3. "Cook on Costs" warns about ascertaining that you are not being given the services of a clerk. "No cost in respect of anything done by any unqualified person acting as a solicitor shall be recoverable by him/her or by any other person in any action, suit or matter."
4. Solicitors are not allowed to send you a final bill until the work is completed; though they can ask you for advances and send interim bills apparently if this is arranged beforehand.
5. Your advances should be kept in a separate deposit account and bear interest.
6. You have the right to have your bill fully analysed, unless you have agreed a fixed fee.(Information about the right to taxation or remuneration should be on the bill evidently).
7. Un-itemised bills. Do not accept bills stating Fees £ XXX, without any details. If you not given a proper bill, ask for it.
8. If you do not agree with the total of the bill, you are allowed apparently to ask for a Remuneration Certificate and/or Taxation for Non-contentious matters or for Taxation for Contentious matters - generally. In either case the bill, fully analysed, will be checked against the work done, the speed of the work, etc. and can be reduced. Check time limits.
N.B. There is the risk that the solicitor can claim for the extra expenses incurred while dealing with this matter. However, if you win, you can also claim for your time and expenses incurred.
Warning: Solicitors have rights too. Apparently solicitors can send a bill a month after a consultations ends. It would be unreasonable, for example, to expect a solitor to wait for payment while a long investigation into his conduct of your case was being investigated by the notoriously slow OSS.
10. Contentious matters: N.B. Generally, non-contentious matters are those which have not gone to court, contentious matters are those which have. Contentious cases are usually dealt with by taxation/assessment, non-contentious through remuneration certificates only.