When petitioning for divorce or dissolution there are Court fees to be paid. The main fee is £550 which includes issuing the petition and the Decree Absolute/Final Order. These do unfortunately rise from time to time, however we do not expect them to rise in the imminent future.
Petitions are based on fault-based allegations (adultery, desertion or unreasonable behaviour) or non-fault based allegations (separation with or without consent). Where a petition is not defended the usual approach is to split the costs, whereas, if it is defended, the "winner" usually recovers their costs from the "loser". The only true winner in those circumstances is the lawyer. If there were no ramifications then many more petitions would probably be defended.
For this type of work solicitors can be paid either on a fixed fee or hourly rate basis. We charge a fixed fee for the work on all undefended divorce petitions plus disbursements (court fees and service fees, if applicable) and an hourly rate for work on the financial and child arrangement aspects of the divorce. This is because the divorce petition process is a fairly standard one and the costs can be predicted. Whereas the other areas are not predictable and so are charged at an hourly rate.
We differ from other solicitors because we ensure one solicitor deals with your entire case from start to finish, this means we understand your case and you only have to speak to one person. However, we only charge you for the level of work carried out. This means you not only get consistency of knowledge throughout your case, but your costs should end up being lower.
We do ask for an initial payment up front, which covers all Court fees, and then we do not get paid until the decree absolute or final order is obtained. If you decide not to continue with the petition, our costs are limited to the fixed fee. For a free consultation call us on 01935 82388