Finding a Northwest Divorce Solicitor Charging Fair Fees

At Evolve Family Law, founders Robin Charrot and Louise Halford recognised that if they were going to ‘break the mould’ and set up a family law firm with a difference, they would need a fair fees policy for their clients. That policy has been in place since Evolve Family Law was established in 2015.

A decade on, the Law Society (a sort of trade union for solicitors) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (the organisation tasked with regulating the legal profession) are looking at how lawyers charge.

Evolve Family Law always welcomes an up-front chat with new clients about legal fees. We recommend you look at our prices page and then contact our family lawyers and Will and estate planning solicitors to see how we can help with your divorce, separation from your unmarried partner, dispute over parenting arrangements (custody or contact), financial settlement or Will and estate planning.

If you need help with family or private client law, phone Evolve Family Law or complete our online enquiry form.

The cost of using a divorce solicitor

When you first talk to a divorce lawyer, your priority is getting your divorce sorted out. That might include obtaining a child arrangement order so your children can live with you, negotiating a financial settlement that allows you to move on with your life and securing your no-fault divorce. Enquiries about costs can be a low priority until the law firm starts sending invoices, but for interested clients, lawyers charge in two main ways:

1. Fixed fees
2. Hourly rates

With a fixed fee agreement, you know that whether your Will solicitor spends one hour or eight hours advising you on estate planning and writing your Will, you will be charged the fixed amount. The same applies to Northwest divorce lawyers and no-fault divorces.

Some areas of family law are difficult to bill fairly on a fixed fee basis. Take the case of a child arrangement order or specific issue order application, your children lawyers won’t know if you will need to attend two or twelve court hearings before the family court judge makes a final order. If the lawyer bases their fixed fee on twelve hearings, that wouldn’t be fair to the parents who can reach an agreement at the second court hearing. At Evolve Family Law, we think the fair thing to do is to offer a mix of fixed fees and fees based on the fee-earner’s hourly rates.

Hourly rates for divorce solicitors

Evolve Family Law has been publishing our competitive hourly rates for directors (Louise Halford and Robin Charrot), family law and Will solicitors and paralegals for nearly a decade. What sets us apart from many other law firms is that we charge by the minute. That sounds greedy, but it isn’t when you contrast our established legal billing practices with other North West law firms. Most law firms charge in six-minute units. What that means in practice is if a solicitor spends 13 minutes reading a document, you will be charged for 18 minutes of the lawyer’s time. At Evolve Family Law, we charge you for the 13 minutes of time spent by one of our lawyers at their agreed hourly rate.

You may think that paying extra for a few minutes of your solicitor’s time isn’t a big deal. However, over a long financial settlement negotiation or complex child abduction proceedings, all those minutes can add up to thousands of pounds in comparison to the fees charged by a ‘by the minute’ lawyer.

Interest on your money

There may be times when your lawyer must hold money on your behalf. For example, client money can be held by a family law or private client solicitor where:

1. Money is paid upfront for legal fees or expenses such as barrister or expert fees
2. A lump sum payment will be paid to your ex-husband or wife with the payment going via solicitors
3. The assets of an estate have been gathered in and a probate solicitor needs to pay inheritance tax and debts owed by the estate before distributing the balance to the beneficiaries in the Will (if there is no Will, the monies will be distributed by following the intestacy rules)

You may think that interest will be a miniscule amount, but that could not be further from the truth.

A recent Law Society financial benchmarking survey reveals the facts. The survey was written and produced by the legal team at Hazlewoods LLP for the Law Society Leadership and Management Section and sponsored by Lloyds. Data was collected from 145 small and mid-sized law firms across England and Wales, with the firms having a combined fee income of over £1.1 billion.

A Law Society Gazette article highlights that falling law firm profits are masked by the equity partners or directors of law firms retaining the interest earned on client capital while it is banked by the law firms. Research shows that around 20% of partners’ and directors’ income is generated from client interest rather than traditional fixed fees or hourly rate charges. Using client interest to generate income for lawyers is a practice that the Solicitors Regulation Authority is looking into.

At Evolve Family Law, we have taken a lead on fair billing and retention of client interest. Our policy is that the interest generated on our holding money on your behalf belongs to you and we will repay any interest earned on your money if the interest amount exceeds £50. We have a £50 interest threshold as otherwise we would spend more administration time in refunding interest. Increasing our administration overheads (and, therefore our hourly rates) isn’t in the best interests of all our valued clients.

Talk to Evolve Family Law

At Evolve Family Law, we believe in being transparent in all we do. That means in addition to being upfront on costs, we are equally clear on the timescales to obtain a family court order or to administer an estate and the likely complexities. We think good communication is the key to a good relationship with our clients. We hope that you will agree to our approach and will want to work with us.

If you need help with family or private client law, phone Evolve Family Law or complete our online enquiry form.