- Law firms charging more than £600 an hour
- It is the first time charges have reached this level in Jersey
- Survey has been complied by costs lawyer Jim Diamond
SOME Jersey law firms are billing clients at more than £600 per hour, according to figures obtained by the JEP.
A survey compiled by costs lawyer Jim Diamond, which examined hourly rates in Jersey, London and America, revealed that partners in some leading Island law firms charge between £495 and £625 per hour.
It is the first time that charges have risen beyond the £600 mark in Jersey.
Jersey (top firms)
*Newly qualified (2 years’ experience): £285 – £350 per hour
*Five years’ experience: £325 – £395
*Partners: £495 – £625
Jersey mid-range firms
*Newly qualified (2 years’ experience): £250 per hour
*Five years’ experience: £285 – £350
*Partners: £375 – £495
London’s so-called Magic Circle (top five city firms)
*Newly qualified (2 years’ experience): £350 – £500 per hour
*Five years’ experience: £500 – £575
*Partners: £775 – £850
Other top London firms outside the Magic Circle
*Newly qualified (2 years’ experience): £250 -£350 per hour
*Five years’ experience: £350 – £495
*Partners: £550 – £800
National UK firms with regional offices
*Newly qualified (2 years’ experience): £195 – £295 per hour
*Five years’ experience: £300 – £350
*Partners: £400 – £500
Top American firms
*Newly qualified (2 years’ experience): £375 – £525 per hour
*Five years’ experience: £500 – £595
*Partners: £700 – £900
The Island’s rates were eclipsed, however, by London’s Magic Circle – the top five law firms in the country – at which partners bill £775 and £850 per hour, according to the survey.
Partners at other top city firms outside that group are charging £550 – £800 per hour in 2015.
Mr Diamond, who is based in Jersey and the UK, has been compiling costs figures since the late 1990s.
His survey, which provides anonymised guideline pay rates for newly qualified lawyers, those with five years’ post-qualification experience and partners, has previously been used by several legal publications and national newspapers including the Financial Times, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal.
He said that legal charges were out of control, explaining that he had offered free budgeting software – endorsed by the UK Law Society – to lawyers at a Chancery Lane seminar in April 2014, but that nobody had taken a copy of the toolkit.
Now, Mr Diamond says he is working on a free client toolkit that will help people manage costs, risk and expectations if they are considering approaching a firm for legal representation.
He said: ‘If you’re getting charges of over £600 per hour where does it stop?
‘Once bigger firms increase their rates it gives smaller firms the opportunity to think well, actually, we can increase our prices as well.
‘In one case I’ve dealt with here the client was told to give £5,000 on account for quite a difficult case where no budget was given. By the end of the first week the law firm had run up £29,000 worth of costs.
‘What I’m doing now is developing a tool kit for clients that will allow them to control and monitor legal fees.’
Mr Diamond said he had been asked to speak at the Island’s first legal costs conference in 2013 by the Law Society of Jersey, but that he had had no further engagement with the group on cost reform since then.
Neville Benbow, the chief executive of the Law Society of Jersey, said it was up to law firms to set their own prices, adding that he did not think that £600 per hour was reflective of the majority of rates offered in the Island.
‘We operate in a very competitive market place and the market will determine the appropriate rate,’ he added.
‘We are seeing an increase in the use of fixed fees for property and family law.
‘At the top end of the commercial level we have expertise comparable to that of Magic Circle firms.
‘We should be proud of the legal profession and the amount of business it brings to Jersey.
‘That’s the right way forward in a competitive market place.’
IN December 2014 a lawyer was fined £15,000 by the Royal Court after charging a woman he was representing more than six times the amount of a debt
claimed against her.
Advocate Andrew Philip Begg was penalised by the court, which also ordered he pay £5,000 towards court costs, after admitting two charges of professional misconduct.
He billed a client £31,192 for work he carried out in challenging a £4,800 claim made against the woman through the Petty Debts Court.
The woman, who was described in a published judgment as a 26-year-old Portuguese woman of limited means, complained to the Law Society, which launched a review led by its disciplinary committee.
However, they found the matter so serious that they notified the Attorney General, who then took the matter to court.
According to the court’s judgment, the lawyer failed to give his client any indication of the likely cost of defending the claim against her and did not inform her how costs were increasing.
