Whilst few have sympathy for solicitors and many believe that all solicitors are “fat cats”, this is in fact different from the reality, except generally in very large commercial practices. We understand that solicitor’s hourly charging rates appear expensive, but few are aware of the overheads. Running a solicitor’s practice requires significant staffing costs, together with the usual business premises costs many office based companies must pay. What many do not realise is that the compulsory solicitors professional indemnity insurance, which provides very significant comfort for all clients, is hugely expensive, and can range from anywhere between 5-15% of turnover. Take all the overheads into account and most solicitors net profit margins are 30% or less, apply this to the hourly rate or fixed fee, and you may have a different perspective on the charges. having said this, many solicitors do not help themselves by failing to be clera and transparent about these kinds of issues, so hopefully, this short post may help !