Our Fees
FUNDING
We offer the following funding options:
Legal Aid / Public funding
We hold a legal aid contract for clients eligible for legal aid. Parents whose children are subject to care and supervision order proceedings (public law) are automatically eligible for legal aid.
Legal aid is also available for other family members in care and supervision order proceedings, family/childcare/ financial relief and domestic abuse matters provided the individual applying for legal aid passes the means and merits test. The means test relates to income and the merits test relates to the relevant evidence required by the Legal Aid Agency.
Please contact us should you need to clarify the legal aid eligibility criteria further.
Initial consultation
a. Initial consultation with no follow-up – £250 per hour plus VAT
b. Initial consultation with follow-up letter confirming advice – £350 plus VAT
We offer specialist legal advice at affordable fees for our private paying clients with flexible payment plans to meet their individual financial needs. Please see our fixed fee funding options below:
i. Divorce proceedings
a. Assisting petitioner with completing petition only – £450 plus VAT
b. Assisting respondent with completing acknowledgment of service only – £250 plus VAT
c. Full representation in ‘straight forward’ divorce from start of case to conclusion:
i. Petitioner – £1500 plus VAT
ii. Respondent – £1000 plus VAT
(Please be aware that a divorce is classed as ‘straight forward’ if no additional applications outside the regular applications have to be made to progress the divorce.)
ii. Section 8 Children Act matters (Child Arrangements)
a. Assisting applicant to complete initial application form(s) only – £500 plus VAT
b. Assisting applicant or respondent to draft statement – £750 plus VAT
iii.Non-Molestation and Occupation Orders
a. Assisting applicant to complete initial application form only – £250 plus VAT
b. Assisting applicant to draft supporting statement – £750 plus VAT
c. Assisting respondent to complete form to oppose the order/s – £250 plus VAT
d. Assisting respondent to draft statement – £750 plus VAT
Our fixed fee rate packages DO NOT cover:
· Court fees and disbursements such as interpreter fees, postage etc
· Applications such as those which may become necessary in divorces such as when the Respondent does not acknowledge service
· The financial aspect of a divorce also known as Financial Relief
We shall always discuss our fees and any possible additional fees before accepting instructions.
Unbundling services
We are happy to assist in cases where an individual wants to retain control of his/her case and require our assistance to carry out particular pieces of work such as preparing statements, responding to court directions or attending some court hearings.
In these instances, our fees will be based on the amount of work to be undertaken and the hourly rates of the fee earner with conduct as set out below:
Director/solicitors (over 8 years PQE – Grade A) : £250 per hour
Other solicitors / legal executives (over 4 years PQE – Grade B): £200 per hour
Other solicitors/ legal executives or fee earners of equivalent experience – £165 per hour
Trainee Solicitors / paralegals: £120 per hour
The above hourly rates are in accordance with solicitors’ guideline hourly rates provided by the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO) available at
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/solicitors-guideline-hourly-rates.
Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss our fees.
Fixed Fee Initial Consultation
Come and meet with one of our experienced solicitors from as little as £100 (junior solicitors) or £150 (senior solicitors). For £100 or £150 (depending on the grade of solicitor you want to see), you will meet with a solicitor for up to 45 minutes. During the meeting, you will receive practical and reasonable advice in relation to your matter for a fixed cost. If further work needs to be done, or you instruct us to undertake any further work, at this meeting those next steps will be discussed as well as payment options.
Most of our services are offered on an hourly rate basis and as many of our clients’ matters are complex and often involve multiple parties, there is rarely a typical case. Our clients are given an estimate of costs after our initial meeting or as part of the engagement process. There are some areas where we are able to be more indicative and, as in accordance with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) guidance on price transparency, we have published our price and service information where it is possible to be upfront about charges without knowing all the details of the matter.
Basis of Charging
We generally base our fees on hourly rates although on some work we are able to offer fixed fees. The current members of our team and their hourly rates are as follows:
The below rates and fee estimates are exclusive of VAT. Professional fees will be subject to VAT at 20% where this is applicable.
| Hourly Rates | |
| Senior Solicitor | £250 |
| Junior Solicitor | £165 – £185 |
|
Trainee Solicitor / Caseworkers |
£150 |
Administrative costs will be added after consultation based on the anticipated volume of documents to be dealt with. It ranges between £30 – £100+ VAT.
Disbursements are payable in addition to these charges. Disbursements are amounts we pay to third parties for expenses such as travel costs and counsel’s fees.
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RSO Solicitors is authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority
and contracted with the Legal Aid Agency