Family Law Introduction

Getting a divorce/dissolution

Getting a divorce or dissolution can be both traumatic and complex, and you may need specific advice depending on your individual circumstances. Find out more on these pages:

• Children and divorce/dissolution
  • Processes for deciding child arrangements
  • Parental responsibility
  • Child Maintenance
  • Can my partner stop me having access to my children?
  • Protecting children during divorce
  • Unmarried fathers’ rights
• Ground for divorce/dissolution of civil partnership
• Divorce procedure
• Finance and divorce
  • Financial settlement on divorce
  • Financial remedies procedure on divorce
• Dispute resolution options
  • Mediation
• Cohabitees
• Cohabitation agreements
• Domestic violence
• Prenuptial agreements
  • Prenuptial agreements: how far are they legally binding?
• Separation agreements
  • Separation agreements: how far are they legally binding?
  • After you’ve made your separation agreement: what next?

Paying for divorce costs: fixed fee packages and legal aid

How much does a divorce cost with Graysons solicitors?

Is public funding (legal aid) available for divorce?

Legal aid for most divorce cases was withdrawn in 2013, although it may still be available in domestic violence cases.  Graysons’ experts can offer advice and assistance with any family legal matter, including domestic violence and if you require an injunction, speedily and at a competitive rate, however Graysons does not offer legal aid.

Fixed Fee Packages

At Graysons, we understand that going through a divorce or separation is an emotionally difficult time, with money worries often high on the agenda. Getting expert legal advice is crucial so that you can understand your entitlements and to make sure that your best interests are met. We are pleased to offer fixed fee divorce packages so you know from the outset exactly what our service will cost and to help you budget accordingly. You can read about our divorce packages below, which also apply to dissolution of a civil partnership.

Divorce standard package

What is included in the standard package?

• One face-to-face, telephone or remote digital meeting with your legal representative
• Completion of all court forms on your behalf to progress the divorce matter and filing of documents in court
• Placing ourselves on the court record as acting for you and liaising with the court in respect of the divorce proceedings
• Progress updates at key stages from your legal representative and a flow chart and fact sheet
• Direct telephone and email contact details for your legal representative

What is not included in the standard package?

• Work or advice in relation to children matters, financial issues, property issues, domestic violence, advice about wills
• Advice or work if the divorce is disputed, the respondent seeks to file their own application or amendments are required after the application is filed
• Personal service of the divorce papers via a process server, in the event that your spouse/civil partner fails to cooperate in returning the acknowledgment to the court
• Deciding if application is to be sole applicant or joint applicants
• Work or advice in pursuing or enforcing a cost order
• Attendance or representation at court
• Divorce which is outside the jurisdiction of England & Wales or where a party lives abroad
• The cost of obtaining a copy of your marriage certificate
• Any work involved in obtaining a translation of your marriage certificate or other documents.
• Service of your application if your spouse/civil partner lives outside of the UK

If you require help on any of the above issues, further information about hourly charging rates and likely cost can be provided specific to your needs. We charge additional fixed fees for specific matters, such as obtaining a certified copy of your marriage certificate (£50+vat) and effecting personal service of a duplicate set of divorce papers upon your spouse/civil partner if this becomes necessary (£100+vat).

How much will it cost & when to pay?

Our standard fixed fee divorce package acting for a sole applicant is £500 + VAT of £100 totalling £600. These costs are payable in two instalments, comprising a first payment of £300 on receipt of your instructions and a balancing payment of £300 about 2 months later when we apply for your conditional order. In addition to the solicitor costs, there is a court fee payable of £593 for issue of your divorce application and you need to pay this just before we file the papers. If you are in receipt of benefits or on a low income, you may be eligible to apply for a full or partial remission or refund of this fee – please ask us about this if you believe you may qualify.

Divorce premium package

What is included in the premium package?

This is a full and comprehensive service relating to your divorce where meetings can be arranged as often as you want and with unlimited communication by way of telephone calls, emails and letters. The service includes negotiation with your spouse or his/her legal representative, going on court record and liaising on your behalf directly with the court office, preparation and lodging of all court papers, updates as to each stage of the matter, a flow chart and fact sheet to explain the court process and peace of mind knowing that you can contact us whenever you wish about any issue. It can include a costs claim in the petition against your spouse and representation at a costs hearing in court if this claim is contested.

How much will it cost and when to pay?

The premium package is charged at your legal representative’s standard hourly rate plus VAT. The individual rates vary from £126 to £255 per hour plus VAT.

We will provide you with our best costs estimate at the outset of the case but an average divorce premium package usually works out in the region of £800 + VAT of £160 + a court fee of £593 totalling £1,553 for the applicant and in the region of £500 + VAT of £100 totalling £600 for the respondent. These estimates are for dealing with the paper exercise of dissolving the marriage/civil partnership only and do not extend to dealing with any ancillary issues such as dividing up property and finances or about the children.

A preliminary payment is taken on receipt of instructions, usually of £300, and a monthly standing order set up to budget for the rest of the anticipated cost. The court issue fee of £593 is paid when filing the divorce petition in court.

Non contentious fixed fees

In some cases we may be able to discuss and agree with you a fixed fee package once in receipt of your instructions and aware of the nature and extent of your specific requirements for the following matters:

• Financial consent order ancillary to divorce/dissolution
• Prenuptial agreement with summary disclosure
• Prenuptial agreement with detailed disclosure (Form E)
• Cohabitation agreement
• Separation agreement
• Parental responsibility agreement (fathers/step-parents)
• Child maintenance deed
• Parenting plans
• Severance of beneficial joint tenancy
• Testamentary guardianship will

Contentious fixed fees

We can also offer fixed fee or capped fee packages for contested court proceedings depending on individual circumstances and depending upon which stage of the court process you have reached.

We offer all of our clients a payment plan by standing order to spread the cost of your legal fees over a period of time and make these more manageable.

Through Resolution, we are also able to offer clients credit facilities for resolving family disputes through Iceberg Credit in certain circumstances.

Please contact us for further details.

Why choose Graysons Solicitors for separation, divorce and any other family matters?

Our services

We understand that relationship breakdown is emotional and traumatic. It can be a difficult time, when important decisions seem almost impossible to make, but we are here to help. Our expert lawyers will be with you all the way, with an approach tailored to meet your individual needs.

We can help with:

• Relationship breakdown and financial issues arising from this for both married and unmarried/cohabiting couples
• Divorce and dissolution of civil partnerships
• Issues relating to children and child arrangements
• Representation for local and international clients, dealing with court proceedings in England and Wales

With offices in Sheffield, Chesterfield and Hathersage, we have the distinct advantage of being a local, rather than a multi-national, firm. This gives us the flexibility to offer an individually tailored service at extremely competitive rates. However, we also have an excellent reputation further afield and represent clients nationally and internationally with a flexible service to accommodate different time zones where necessary.

Our expertise, experience and recommendations

Our Legal 500 recommended family law team is highly experienced and talented with expertise in all areas of family law – with an outstanding reputation for constructively resolving family law disputes:

Our family, divorce and separation expertise:

• All of our family solicitors are Resolution members
• We have members of the Law Society Family Law Accreditation Scheme
• Meet our highly regarded team

• Experts at dealing with business assets, pensions and high value cases

Graysons offers outstanding client care. Many of our clients are recommended to us by family and friends who have already used, and been highly satisfied with, our services. If you are contemplating a divorce, separation or dissolution of civil partnership, we would suggest that you ask around for recommendations from others who have needed similar legal advice in the past.

Contact us to arrange a fixed-fee initial appointment.

Our solicitors’ membership of Resolution: Code of Practice

All of the family law team are members of Resolution, and as such, follow its published code of practice as follows:

Membership of Resolution commits family lawyers to resolving disputes in a non-confrontational way.

We believe that family law disputes should be dealt with in a constructive way designed to preserve people’s dignity and to encourage agreements.

Members of Resolution are required to:

• Conduct matters in a constructive and non-confrontational way
• Avoid use of inflammatory language both written and spoken
• Retain professional objectivity and respect for everyone involved
• Take into account the long term consequences of actions and communications as well as the short term implications
• Encourage clients to put the best interests of the children first
• Emphasise to clients the importance of being open and honest in all dealings
• Make clients aware of the benefits of behaving in a civilised way
• Keep financial and children issues separate
• Ensure that consideration is given to balancing the benefits of any steps against the likely costs – financial or emotional
• Inform clients of the options e.g. counselling, family therapy, round table negotiations, mediation, and court proceedings
• Abide by the Resolution guides to good practice

The code should be read in conjunction with the Law Society’s Family Law Protocol.

All solicitors are subject to the SRA’s Practice Framework Rules.

You can find out more about Resolution at www.resolution.org.uk

Related articles:

• Family law Solicitors
• Grounds for divorce
• Child maintenance

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