Pre and post nuptial agreements

how we charge.

Howell Jones provides excellent service at a fair price. Our charges are based on competitive hourly rates, and we endeavour to give detailed estimates of likely time to be spent wherever possible and keep these updated as appropriate. Limits can be agreed and invoices will be delivered monthly to keep you fully informed.

FREE INITIAL DISCUSSION on the telephone

An initial telephone call provides you with general no-obligation information. You can discuss a sensible next step with us on this call.

INITIAL MEETING with written follow-up – Lawyer’s hourly rate plus vat

Meet one of our experienced family lawyers and discuss your concerns with them in more detail. They will be able to offer you some more specific advice and provide you with a written account of the meeting.

We take payment at the meeting either by bank transfer or card payment.

FIXED PRICE OPTIONS

In some circumstances, we may be able to offer a fixed fee service to give you certainty as to the cost involved. This is something to be discussed with the lawyer working with you and will very much depend upon the level of agreement between you and your partner and the work involved. Examples of such work would be:

Basic draft agreement – £2500 plus vat.

Advice on basic pre-drafted agreement – £1000 plus vat.

COMPETITIVE HOURLY RATES and COST ESTIMATE

Legal fees can be high and in family cases, are not something you can necessarily plan for. They cannot be avoided. We are very aware of this, and we want to be open about the likely costs and how these will be met.

Our legal fees range from £230 to £320 per hour plus vat. We require the sum of £1200 to be held on your client account before we can accept and instruction and £3600 if there are court proceedings. We cannot offer client credit.

how will my legal fees be met?

• Family/friends – if needed we can accept payments from third parties towards your legal fees subject to compliance with our ID/AML requirements. This should be properly documented to be taken into account as a liability in the settlement/court process.
• Bank/loans/refinancing – this is always an option if your circumstances allow and if the agreement with any third parties is possible.
• Legal services order – if your partner has substantial funds which can be used to meet your legal fees the court can make an order that this takes place to ensure you are both on an equal footing. If this cannot be agreed an application to the court will be needed.
• Litigation funding – this is funding provided by specialist lenders strictly for the purpose of funding the costs of going to court and related negotiations. We work with litigation funding companies for this purpose.