5 Ways to Save with your Solicitor
January is the time for saving money. The January sales, end of season offers, money off coupons etc.
Unfortunately quite the opposite seems to be the case for relationships which have been hanging on ‘for the sake of the children’ over Christmas. The number of people consulting a solicitor to start Divorce / Separation Proceedings, Injunction Proceedings and Proceedings relating to Children is higher during this month that almost any other time of the year.
Whether this is because you have not wanted to spoil Christmas for the children, or being thrown together with your partner far more than you normally would, or because you told some home truths after too much wine with Christmas lunch, the result is the same. Here you are at the time of the year when you are least likely to have much money to spare looking at what is inevitably going to be an expensive undertaking.
The average cost of a Divorce is around £1,000 and that’s even before you start to look at the financial arrangements (£1,000 - £15,000) or children issues (£500 - £5,000).
Unfortunately solicitors do not have sales but there are ways that you can make sure you get value for money and that your bill at the end will not break the bank too much.
- Shop around. Solicitors who deal with ‘Family’ matters do not charge you a fixed fee, they charge you by the hour for work done on the file using a fixed rate called a ‘charging rate’. This varies from firm to firm and also, within each firm depending on the level of experience of the person dealing with your file, so that a partner in the firm will charge you more per hour that a junior solicitor or Legal Executive.
- Telephone a range of solicitors in your area and ask them who would be dealing with your file and what the charging rate for that person would be. Compare the rates and choose the lowest or the one which gives the best value for money. For example it might be worth paying a slightly higher hourly rate if you are going to be dealing with a more experienced practitioner.
- When you are considering which solicitor to select talk to the person who is going to be dealing with your file to get a feel of what they are like and what their priorities are. Most firms offer a free initial session for you to meet the solicitor and get some initial advice.
- Broadly speaking there are two kinds of solicitor; those who care about you and those who care about the money you can make for their firm.
Solicitors who care about you will not promise you the earth. They will not tell you that they will ‘screw the other person for all they are worth’, they won’t be afraid to tell you if what you are asking for is unreasonable and they will give you, right at the start, a clear idea of where the case is going, the steps which need to be taken and a realistic assessment of what you are likely to achieve.
Solicitors who care about you will advise you that court proceedings are a last resort (except in the case of the Divorce itself) and will discuss with you the possibility of reaching an agreement yourselves either through negotiation or mediation. If you come to them with an agreement you have already made with your former partner they will advise you sensibly of what the pitfalls may be in proceeding with the agreement but they will not try to dissuade you on the basis that there is a chance you might get more.
Solicitors who care about the money will promise you the earth and will talk about the maximum you could achieve rather than what it is realistic to expect to achieve. They will not challenge your instructions and will put whatever you ask to the other side without considering if it is reasonable or inflammatory or achievable.
Solicitors who care about the money will constantly be advising court proceedings or will engage in lengthy and pointless negotiation with letters flying back and fore often filled with inflammatory material which in the end make matters worse.
Ask your solicitor what their approach is. A solicitor who cares about you will tell you that they will try to achieve a sensible settlement with as little conflict as possible as quickly as reasonably possible. A solicitor who cares about the money will tell you that they will get you what you are entitled to, or what you want, or will raise some other unrealistic expectation in your minds.
- Do as much of the work as possible yourself. Particularly in financial disputes there will be a lot of information to obtain from third parties, such as mortgage redemption figures, house valuations, etc.. Ask your solicitor at the very beginning to provide you with a list of the information you will need to obtain and then get it yourself. You will save about £40 per letter / telephone call you make. Remember that if you obtain all the information at an early stage it may speed up negotiations but may need to be updated if the matter goes on for more than 6 months.
You should not apply for pension information until asked to do so by your solicitor as you are only entitled to have a calculation once in every 12 months.
At FWD Law we provide a full range of family law services at an extremely economic price. We offer an easy pay scheme to further reduce the stress of costs by stretching them over a period of time with a fixed monthly payment collected by standing order.
We are absolutely committed to making the experience of instructing a solicitor as stress free as possible. We actively encourage non confrontational practices and promote mediation, having a fully qualified mediator on staff.
We care about our clients to the extent that our senior partner Mr Charles Williams was a finalist in the Western Mail Legal Awards, Pro Bono (providing free services) Lawyer of the Year.
