Scams by lawyers on clients

1. Instruction not for a fixed amount when you think it is ie they mislead you.

2. Agreeing to give estimate for further work and they don't instead they inform the client after the work has been done.

3. Overbilling - for time ( interviews with junior members of law firms have disclosed instructions from senior partners to give as full a response as they can in order to maximise the billing, and to even bill if they are on their lunch break if they so much as think about the client.

4. Conflicts - lawyers take the chinese wall to rice paper thickness and often have conflicts that they do not make clear to the client. ALWAYS GET THEM TO STATE IN WRITING THAT THEY HAVE NO CONFLICTS AT THE START.

5. If you have more than one instruction with the lawyer , the lawyer may take funds from one account to pay a bill from another account with out instruction. Make sure where possible you use a different law firm for each instruction.

6. Lack of description of the work undertaken in relation to the hours charged or lack of hours that relate to description. ( various interviews with junior members have shown that partners often guess and do not keep good time keeping records against detailed descriptions of the work undertaken this is often done long after the event and attendance notices are embellished to support the bill. Always ask for a copy of the attendance note to all meetings and phone calls as these notes are undertaken in any event at the time, THIS PREVENTS ANY FURTHER EMBELISHMENT.