Costs

All clients want to know about the likely costs of a case, want to be kept up-to-date with costs and wish to keep those costs contained. You should not allow worry about potential costs to deter you from obtaining professional advice, even if you live overseas, because at Stowe Family Law we will advise you of all the available options.

At Stowe Family Law, clients prize our frank and transparent approach to fees. It is an approach that has been honed and adapted to clients’ needs and feedback ever since the firm was founded more than 25 years ago.

Andrew Williams, the Chief Executive of Stowe Family Law and Morna Rose, the firm’s Practice Manager, are available from Monday to Friday to assist with queries about costs and other areas of client care, free of charge. So if you have a question or enquiry, please don’t hesitate to contact them.

From the very first telephone call...

Our work is charged at an hourly rate depending on the seniority and the experience of the solicitor involved. Upon booking a first appointment with a Stowe Family Law solicitor, you will be told the solicitor’s charge-out rate.

(Unless, that is, you are booking an appointment at our free family law advice clinic – in which case you will be told that there is no charge at all!)

Before you meet with a Stowe Family Law solicitor, you will be asked by our receptionist to sign a paper confirming that you are aware of the charge-out rate and that it is acceptable to you.

The first appointment

At your first meeting, as well as advising you about your case, we will also advise you on the estimated fees for your case and the options available to you for funding.

Instructing Stowe Family Law

If you wish to proceed and instruct Stowe Family Law, we will confirm the estimated fees and our solicitors’ charge-out rates in a written retainer letter, which we will ask you to sign and return to us.

If for any reason our original estimate has to be amended, we will notify you and obtain your consent before the further work is undertaken.

Billing

Stowe Family Law will send you a bill every month, to prevent costs mounting up and to ensure that you are aware of what your costs are as your case proceeds.

When you receive your monthly bill, you will also receive a breakdown of the costs for that month. Stowe Family Law only charges for time that has been recorded on your client ledger, cross-checked against our file entries and fully verified by our management team.

Our policy of manually cross-checking bills is labour-intensive, but it does ensure accuracy and your bills will be produced in this way at no extra cost to you. On the rare occasion that a discrepancy occurs, it will be corrected immediately.

At any time you may visit our offices and read through your client files, to satisfy your own cross-checks. You also have unlimited access to our management team, who will assist you free of charge with any queries.