Funding

Charging for family law services

At the heart of any business is cash flow and the key elements for family lawyers are how much and how to charge for family law services. Neither the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) nor the Legal Ombudsman (LEO) have an expectation that low charging is better. Sound governance of a business means that a firm must be profitable otherwise, in the long run, unprofitability puts the business at risk.

When reviewing family work charges, the following key aspects should be considered:

  1. the terms of business, ie the contractual relationship with the client

  2. ways of paying for services, ie hourly rates, fixed fees etc, and

  3. receiving payment for services

See Practice Note: Funding—charging for family law services.

Unbundled services or Pay As You Go

An unbundled service means legal advice provided to a client in a case where the client is acting in person. It can comprise a simple checking service, one off advice, the advocacy in a case, or a more organised Pay As You Go (PAYG) service throughout the proceedings. With the client acting

To view the latest version of this document and thousands of others like it, sign-in with LexisNexis or register for a free trial.

Powered by Lexis+®
Latest Family News

High Court judgment demonstrates usefulness of section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 in Schedule 1 claims (Re P (A Child) (Financial Provision))

Family analysis: In this Schedule 1 case the mother received, for her son’s benefit: a housing fund of nearly £1m (the property to be held on trust); child maintenance (including ‘HECSA’/carer’s allowance) until completion of his first degree; and lump sums in respect of his capital needs and her own substantial liabilities (chiefly relating to her unpaid legal fees). The father (whose resources could be measured in the ‘tens of millions of pounds’) had sought to prejudice the mother’s claims via transferring his valuable shares to family members, who then transferred the same into a trust structure (settled under Czech law). A further onwards transfer was then made of the trust’s assets into a Liechtenstein foundation. Inferences were drawn by the court in respect of the level of the father’s wealth, and specifically as to the value of the transferred shares. Detailed findings were made against him in respect of the identified transactions, which had been the focus of the mother’s section 423 application. Although a section 423(2) order was not actually made, the application was adjourned pending the father’s compliance with the award, with security in the sum of £600,000 also ordered, alongside a continuation of the freezing orders made earlier in the proceedings. David Wilkinson, solicitor at Slater Heelis, considers the issues.

View Family by content type :

Popular documents