Letter: charging for delivery

Coral Riddell's pellucid and comprehensive answer (Journal, December 2015, 42) to a solicitor's question anent, inter alia, a firm of solicitors' entitlement or otherwise to claim fees from its own client for passing documents, including title deeds, to another firm of solicitors, is very much in the air at the present moment in connection with a similar topic.

The topic to which I refer is the matter of a solicitor's lien, or right of retention, in relation to a client's deeds and other property. It is, of course, well established that a client's title deeds, other documents, and file in its entirety, are the exclusive property of the client, and must be handed over to the client, at the solicitor's expense, on demand, subject only to the payment to the solicitor of any outstanding proper fees and outlays. 

Coral Riddell rightly refers to the Law Society of Scotland's Rules and Guidance, Section E, Division B, and the guidance "Charging for Lending or Delivering Files, Titles and other Papers". However, what must not be lost sight of is the fact that this guidance note refers only to lending or delivering to another solicitor, and somewhat curiously makes no reference to outlays. Incidentally, the reference in the said guidance note to charging for the return of documents is puzzling.