Costs
What will it cost you?
David’s approach to charging for his legal services is explained below.
David aim is to ensure that you are aware and agreed on the work to be done and costs (where possible( before any work is started. This works for both of us
- Costs: The actual costs that may be incurred depend on what David is asked to do, what is agreed, and how we have agreed to charge/fund your instruction.
- Hourly Rates: David’s standard method of charging if to charge for his time taken multiplied by his hourly rate plus VAT (to be advised before work starts)). David has extensive experience and expertise which means he can work quickly and efficiently. He is based in Cheltenham with lower overheads which means that his hourly rate is competitive compared to the City firms.
- Fixed Fees: Dependent on requirements of your matter, David will endeavour if possible to offer a fixed fee (or estimate) arrangement either for the initial phase(s) where the scope of the required work is very clear and doesn’t depend on external parties/matters (in litigation matters this is usually at the start only before the opposition are involved). This option is always dependent on the circumstances i.e. where there will be no surprises e.g. review and advice on merits, cease & desist letters, letters before claim and responses, response to enquiries from the opposition, preparing or responding to interim applications, up to issuing proceedings.
- Estimates and Credit Limit: Where the scope of the work is unclear and/or not predictable with multiple stages, then David must work on a time spent basis with resettable fee estimates for agreed stages e.g. these matter will likely be long term and/or comprise of multiple strategies /scenarios which may change depending on how your opponent or Court responds as we move forward. In these cases, it is difficult to predict costs other than to provide “ball-park estimates” for each next step. This way clients will be aware how much spend they are committed to until notified that the stage limit is reached. They can decide whether to proceed and to re-set the credit limit at that stage, or not. This offers clients comfort in knowing where they are on spend vs their budget.
- No win no fee or conditional fee arrangements: If you (as the intended claimant) have insufficient funding to pursue any claim all the way to trial, we may consider whether or not we can act on your behalf on a no-win no-fee basis. However, it must be that your case merits are strong and your opponent must have sufficient and clearly identifiable means (in our view) to easily pay any costs agreed or ordered by the Court to be paid if we are successful (this is in addition to their own legal costs). We must first assess the strength/merits of your case, the commercial aspects, and all the factors which includes forming a solid understanding of the background. This means normally an initial fee will be payable by you to us for the time spent for this review (and which may include an initial meeting). We will advise you of the cost of the review upon your enquiry.