At what point is legal fees finalised: it is finalised before the interview stage, at the briefing stage
BILLINGS is a way in which a LP can charge for his fees. Billing is called the scale fee. Billing is regulated by scale and provided for by statute.
- Scale 1 deals with mortgage and sale of land.
- Scale 2 deals with lease transaction
- Scale 3 deals with matters not covered under scale 1 & 2 and where both parties elect to charge under scale 3
Scale fee is used for non-contentious matters.
Mortgage Transaction
Mortgage transactions and sale of land is calculated in thousands. Note the stages applicable, have a good/appropriate heading, date. You don’t need to memorise the scale, it would be provided for you.
Stages applicable
- Stage 1 – for the first one thousand = 1000/100 × scale/one
- Stage 2 – For the second and third thousand = 2000/100 × scale/one
- Stage 3 – For the 4th to the 20th one thousand = 17000/100 × scale/one
- Stage 4 - Remainder without limit = Consideration – 20,000/100 × scale/1 (note on mortgage the consideration is the amount of the loan not the value of the property)
- Stage 5 – sum up your answer in stage 1,2,3 and 4
This applies when a solicitor for one party.
When you’re acting for both parties your fees would be Full fees of the mortgagee + half fees of the mortgagor. The rationale is that the richer pays more. So you’ll have 11 stages when acting for both parties. Go through all the stages for the mortgagor and the mortgagee. Then divide the answer for the mortgagor solicitor fee by 2, then add it to the mortgagee’s solicitor fee to arrive at the final charge.
e.g. so if the fees for the mortgagee is N20, and the fee for the mortgagor is N10, the solicitors final fee for acting for both parties would be N25
¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢ = 50 circles (Each circle represents a thousand naira)
Mr Ijesha retained your services as a solicitor in a mortgage transaction of N50,000. Calculate your fees for perfecting the mortgage.
17000/100 × scale/one. Imagine if scale is 2. It would then be 17000/100 × 2/1 = 340
LEASE TRANSACTION
The opposite of mortgage applies to lease. Lease transactions when a solicitor is acting for both parties the solicitor charges full of lessor and half of the lessee. For sale of land = full assignor and full of the assignee.
Lease transaction is calculated in hundreds (100). For sale it is the amount of purchase that would be considered, for lease transactions it’s the rent amount that would be considered. For lease check the rent and duration/term of years.
Appropriate heading
- Step 1: For the first one hundred = 100/100 × scale/one , so for step one the answer would always be the scale.
- Step 2: for the next hundred to the first one thousand =900/100 × scale/one , it would then b 9×scale
- Step 3: remainder without limit = consideration – 1000/100 × scale/one
- Step 4: sum your answer in stage 1, 2 and 3