It is common knowledge that civil litigation is expensive. This is coupled with the rule that, in most cases, the losing party in litigation should pay the legal costs of the successful party.
The main reason for the rule is that the law seeks to ensure that a party required to prove their rights or innocence (whether it is the claimant or defendant) through the courts should be given a complete return of their costs incurred to date.
N.B However, a proviso to this rule is that a claimant who is awarded damages but not costs does not get a full remedy as to costs. Equally neither does a defendant who successfully defeats a claim but has to pay the solicitors who have achieved that defeat.
Litigation takes time, both for the investigative stages before proceedings are issued, and after issue through to final resolution. Solicitors acting for a party are entitled to seek payment on account as the claim progresses, and are not required to wait until the conclusion of the case before asking for payment. This is kept in the firm's client account. A client making payments on account is also not so likely to be taken by surprise by the issuing of interim bills.
An important consideration for many clients is whether their solicitors will take a case through to trial without demanding large sums of money or incurring additional fees such as barristers' cost. Lawdit Solicitors are different. Two members of its litigation department are Solicitor-Advocates. Both are solicitors who are qualified to represent clients as an advocate (like a barrister) in the higher courts in England and Wales. This means that you do not have to pay additional fees for legal representation at court/trial etc. This can save you thousands in the long run if your potential claim does go all the way to trial. This is not to say that we do not instruct Barristers on your behalf, of course we do. But only if it is necessary.
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