Our Charges

Our initial meetings are at no charge and there is no time limit. Thereafter, our charges are based upon hourly rates which range from £500 to £110 depending upon the seniority and experience of the person acting. Your case will be led by a partner who will delegate where possible to more junior colleagues in order to achieve cost effectiveness. The typical ‘blended’ hourly rate is therefore around £260 per hour.

Costs are not driven primarily by how much wealth there is in a marriage or by how complicated the parties’ financial affairs are (though this is relevant). The primary driver of costs is the manner in which the parties relate to each other as they separate and afterwards. Contrary to popular belief, divorce does not need to be painfully expensive. Typically, the cost is no more than a few percent of the value in the marriage, comparable to the percentage cost of selling a house.

Where both parties are open, reasonable and well advised from the start, the costs will be low. Around 1 in 5 of our cases costs under £10,000. This typically equates to less than 1 or 2% of the value in the marriage. It is human nature that most divorces do not start like that, but even after some initial turbulence, we are able to bring most cases to a fair negotiated settlement without the need to go to Court at all.

The average cost is in the range of £10,000 to £50,000. Occasionally, where one party is persistently dishonest or unreasonable there is no way to get a fair outcome except by going to Court. In that case the cost may exceed £100,000, but that will only happen where the value in dispute justifies the expense of the litigation, or in other words there is a good prospect of getting a worthwhile return on the money spent.

We are committed to achieving cost effective results. In order to help you take decisions that will keep your case as cost effective as possible we will invoice you on a monthly basis and provide you with written advice in respect of costs, including an updated forward estimate, at least once a month as your case progresses.

Our invoices are payable on receipt. In some cases clients are not able to pay as they go. In these cases we are usually able to arrange a litigation funding package with a specialist lender instead. If your case is not suitable for litigation funding we may be able to act for you on credit so that you pay when your case is over.