HopeHolm Family Law is authorised to provide family litigation and advocacy services and is independently regulated by CILEx Regulation.
Regulated by CILEx Regulation, HopeHolm Family Law is obliged to carry a Professional Indemnity Insurance. This insurance is renewed yearly and covers all our family work listed below.
Our family legal services are further covered by CILEx Regulation’s compensation arrangements.
Services
| Legal Area | Costs Guidance |
| Price Details | Our hourly rate is £300 inclusive of VAT (£250 plus £50 VAT 20%) Please note we do not provide any Legal Aid services or advice as we do not hold the franchise to offer public funding work or services. 1st Consultation The cost of this initial 1-hour consultation is £250.00 + VAT payable 48 hours before the consultation and is non-refundable. This excludes perusal of documents, reports or court bundle; after having sight of the documents enclosed within, a fee will be proposed to include reading time [to go through the paperwork/bundle and a 1-hour consultation] before the consultation. There will be no additional fee for perusal of paperwork unless the bundle exceeds 10 pages. We recommend having a one-hour consultation (face to face or Zoom) to see how we can assist in the first instance as well as provide you the advice you will require to move matters forward or what your options are; there is no obligation to instruct thereafter – this is purely a one-hour consultation to impart advice and information. This will also help us understand and assess the situation or backdrop of your matter to formulate our advice. We also propose a brief chronology of dates and key events to date i.e. when parties met or separated and so forth is provide before the consultation, so we do not waste time setting out the preliminaries. If there are any correspondence, reports or court papers, please forward them but rest assured this will be treated with the strictest confidentiality and will be discarded should you not proceed to instruct after the consultation. |
| Children Click here for more details about this practice area. | Children Matters for a Child Arrangements Order (CAO) or Inter-Country Adoption Children Act proceedings and Inter-Country Adoption matters are dealt with on an hourly rate. In some cases, we might be able to offer you a fixed fee if it is possible. This can be discussed after the initial consultation. Court route – if parties cannot agree Court application fee : £313 Our hourly rate of £250 + VAT applies It may take 2 two hearings for the court to reach a decision but usually it will be 3 hearings but if the parties are cooperating or reasonable, matters may be resolved at the 2nd hearing; otherwise, there will be a final and third contested hearing; you will be looking between £3,500 – £15,000 for 3 hearings. Please note that the hourly rate does not include any fees for the barrister, process server, translators or our attendance at court for the hearing. There is no guarantee what outcome you will get or whether matters will conclude within 1 or after 2 hearings. Sometimes there may even be more hearings before matters can conclude if the other party makes serious allegations or raises grave safeguarding concerns leading to the court directing a Fact-Finding Hearing (FFH). Fee for FFH Due to any safeguarding concerns or allegations which have been raised, there will be cross examination with oral evidence given by the parties and witnesses if there are any, and this hearing is usually listed for 2 to 3 days or more, if matters are very complex. Extra costs will incur for prepping or attending to this additional part of these proceedings – it can cost between £4,000 to £8,000 + VAT more if a FFH is directed within your CA application for a CAO. Please note that this does not include any fee for the barrister or our attendance at court for the hearing. Agreement By Consent (non-court route) @£3500.00 + vat (fixed fee) If a mutual consensus is achievable, a consent order where both parties can agree for matters to proceed without attending court to avoid stressful, costly and less contentious proceedings can be drafted and filed at a fixed fee to avoid attending court. This can only happen if both parties agree to all the terms on how they want living and contact arrangements to take place moving forward. An application with the requisite court fee will still have to be made to the court to consider your CAO whether you adopt the court route or non-court route. Court fee for Children Act Order application £263 (no VAT) Consent order fee £60 (no VAT) Court fee for C2 (application within proceedings) £190 (no VAT) |
| Injunctions / Domestic Abuse Click here for more details about this practice area. | Family Law Act [FLA] matters are usually dealt with on an hourly rate. Injunctions (Non-molestation or Occupation Orders; FLA) With/on notice applications or without notice applications Court application fee : not applicable Our hourly rate of £250 + VAT applies This fee includes advising and liaising with you and all third parties, communicating, considering reports/correspondences and corresponding via email, letters or telephone and drafting statements. Hearings – up to 3 to include the application [for an injunction] hearing with costs between £3,500 – £12,500 + VAT. This is not inclusive of any disbursements or extra applications such as process server or counsel’s fees. Instructing counsel can cost around £1250 – £2500 + VAT for the first / return hearing – if counsel is instructed to attend court with you. If matters cannot conclude and remains contested with a plethora of allegations or safeguarding concerns, the court may list a Fact-Finding Hearing (FFH) to determine these issues. Fee for FFH Due to serious safeguarding concerns or allegations which have been raised, there will be cross examination with oral evidence given by the parties and witnesses [if there are any], and this hearing is usually listed for 2 to 3 days or more, if matters are very complex. Extra costs will incur for prepping or attending to this additional part of these proceedings – depending on the allegation (nature and amount), it can cost between £5,000 to £10,000 + VAT or more if a FFH is directed to determine these allegations. Please note that this does not include any fee for the barrister or our attendance at court for the hearing. The court’s decision is not based on beyond reasonable doubt unlike a Criminal court but on the balance of probabilities that the alleged incident[s] did occur if found on the evidence that is provided. If your matter is billed on an hourly basis, we will charge accordingly – based on how much time we spend on your file; 1 hour of work will equal to £250.00 + VAT; please note that standard emails, letters, texts and telephone calls in/out are charged as 1 unit which equals to 6 minutes of our time and therefore, £25.00 + VAT each. |
| Divorce and Separation Click here for more details about this practice area. | Divorce matter We propose to carry out straightforward instructions on a fixed fee basis @ £1,800 + VAT excluding the court fee of £613. Court fee for divorce application £613 (no VAT) If matters become complicated in the process i.e. emergency applications must be made within the divorce application itself or if the other party issues a cross application, we will discuss and propose any additional fees deemed appropriate should extra costs or unexpected time are to be incurred on the matter. Divorce cases are usually dealt with on an hourly rate. In some cases, we might be able to offer you a fixed fee from making the application until complerion or receipt of the final order. This can be discussed after the initial consultation. |
| Matrimonial Finances Click here for more details about this practice area. | Financial Remedy Settlement Matrimonial Finances All financial remedy settlement instructions are undertaken on an hourly rate Court fee for application £313 (no VAT) Consent order fee £60 (no VAT) Financial Remedy – Contested Court Proceedings Our hourly rate at £250 + VAT applies and work will be billable on the amount of work and time taken to carry out your instructions. Please note that there may be other disbursement costs such as fees for counsel’s representation. The costs of these (3) proceedings can be in the region of £12,000 – £20,000 + VAT if it goes to three hearings. A general court application (fee of £313) will have to be made first.This fee is extended to imparting advice throughout, all correspondence (via email/letters/texts or telephone), liaising with yourself and all third parties in this matter, perusal and drafting statements, court applications, preparing a court bundle and drafting a brief to counsel. Please note that this does not include any fees for the court, our attendance at court for the hearing, process server if one is needed, or counsel. Unlike divorce proceedings, we are unable to propose a fixed fee for a financial remedy settlement as we simply do not know how or whether matters will settle quickly or not – it all depends on the parties. On matrimonial finances, the rate will always be hourly because it is difficult to ascertain whether matters will settle swiftly or if it will be protracted/entrenched. If your matter is billed on an hourly basis, we will charge accordingly – based on how much time we spend on your file, i.e. 1 hour of work will equal to £250.00 + vat; please note that standard emails, letters, texts and telephone calls in/out are charged as 1 unit which equals to 6 minutes of our time and therefore, £25 + vat each (at a minimum). Should an agreement cannot be reached despite best efforts, the court will be invited to make a decision on your matrimonial finances. Financial Remedy – by Consent for a financial remedy settlement Our fee for drafting a straightforward consent order is £3000 + vat; if the issues are complex, a separate fee will have to be discussed and agreed. The court fee is £60 when the consent order is filed after parties have approved and signed the order. A separate and general court application (fee of £313) will have to be made first. |
Price details
Our hourly rate is £300 inclusive of VAT (£250 plus £50 VAT at 20%).
All rates and retainer arrangements will also be confirmed in writing in your client care letter.
External consultants will be charged at a pre-agreed rate and confirmed in writing. The costs associated with these instructions will be in addition to our fees.
HopeHolm Family Law always recommends instructing a Barrister or Counsel for court attendances. These instructions will be dependent on each individual case and complexity; hence the need or cost cannot be predetermined. The costs associated with these instructions will be in addition to our fees.
| Invoices will be sent intermittently or at the end of each week or calendar month with a breakdown of the work completed on the matter. If necessary, a request for further retainer/monies on account will be sent when funds are low in your client account; this will also set out future work that is anticipated in the client’s case. No further work will be carried out outside of the agreed schedule of work listed above without your agreement and until further funds have been placed in your client account, as agreed. All fees must be settled and cleared in full before a hearing date or the submission of an application, witness statement or order and for undertaking on-going instructions. We reserve the right to add an uplift to our charges to take into account factors that may arise such as: complexity, extenuating circumstance, cross applications and urgency. |