The price of separation - Legal Ombudsman

153. Ancillary reliefMrs C had a number of family matters for which sherequired legal advice, so she approached a firmfollowing a friend’s recommendation.The firm provided the initial advice she was after and Mrs C wenton to instruct them in a number of matters, including her divorceand ancillary relief. The other matters included applying foraccess and residence orders, as well as defending against similarapplications that her husband was making. The overall estimate forthe work was £10,000.Work progressed and seemed to be going well. The firm instructeda barrister to provide advice, which Mrs C paid for. However, MrsC became uneasy about how much the work was costing her – notjust the cost of things like the barrister’s advice but also the cost ofthe work the firm itself was doing. She continued paying the billsdespite not being told about certain costs in advance. However,Mrs C eventually complained, asking for a detailed breakdown ofall the costs.When we investigated, we found that the work the firm haddone seemed to be reasonable; however the costs situation wasconfusing, probably because the firm was dealing with more thanone matter at once.We found that the firm hadn’t kept Mrs C adequately informedabout how her costs were increasing – they had sent her bills butwe couldn’t see any evidence that they had discussed the positionwith her in advance. Without this, she wasn’t in a position to fullyunderstand her financial commitments or make informed decisionsabout the case. An ombudsman decided that the firm should limitits outstanding fees, so that the amount Mrs C owed was justover £5,000. This meant that the total bill was reduced by about£15,000.The price of separation: Divorce related legal complaints and their causes