[lokken]

I'm going to make it easy for this thread.

Solicitors do work, and time how long they are working plus expenses. They put in a lot of years of training to be able to do their work, work hard when they are actually qualified (as quite a few have billing targets, as in how many hours they have to put in) and thus should be paid accordingly, according the stature of their firm and their experience in the firm, like any other business.

They then send a 'bill' in order to get 'paid'

This 'bill' will generally be paid by the loser, however sometimes the loser won't have to pay all the costs involved, because it would be unfair due to various factors, including the behaviour of the lawyers/parties at trial and beforehand and whether the costs made should be picked up by that party. Therefore the winner sometimes (not always though) has to pay costs and this might be out of their damages. Some people have sued people successfully for a loss and felt it was worth it simply because they wanted their day in court (although that isn't really relevant here, it's just illustrative).

Solicitors cannot charge a percentage of damages as part of a 'success fee'. This is called a contingency fee and is not permitted by the solicitors code of conduct for what is called 'contentious litigation' (in your speak, this is basically 'going to court'). What they can do is charge a "conditional fee agreement" whereby on success the fee is uplifted by a % which usually fluctuates between 10-25%, although I have no precise data for this to hand. There are very strict rules on entry into these agreements to provide safeguards for the client.

As far as I'm concerned, solicitors do work, ask to get paid and then do get paid for their work like any profession and that payment/charging regime is regulated. Solicitors do get paid well but considering the difficulty in becoming one and the work required to take a case to court, why shouldn't they be well paid?

My conclusion is that the people who were making claims probably used the wrong size of firm (in that they were too expensive) and would have been better off getting a specialist firm, or using a smaller firm of solicitors who would have charged a more reasonable price and thus increased compensation for everyone. Although this is just a students view of the situation.