Woman meeting notary for advice

Our Prices

When we started Evolve Family Law in 2015, we knew that we wanted to give our clients value for money. To achieve this goal we are always fair and transparent on fees.

This has been part of our culture from day one, and it is why we are one of the first law firms in the country to publish our fees online.

Our vision is to be the most trusted and first choice advisors for everyone going through relationship changes.

Our Standard Fixed Fees

We may be able to do any kind of work for you on a fixed fee basis. However, for anything other than the list of services below, we would need to assess this on an individual basis after we know more about your situation. For relationship breakdown, a comprehensive initial review is always necessary. Please call us to make an appointment to meet with one of our lawyers.

All prices below include court fees.

Service
Relationship breakdown
Comprehensive initial review
Pricing
£300 Excluding VAT
£360 Including 20% VAT
Timescale for completion
Normally within a week of you contacting us.
Includes

One meeting with a qualified lawyer regarding all legal and practical aspects of your situation, to include assessment of the best routes to resolving your situation.
Any preparation which is required in advance of the meeting.

Excludes

Any further work after the meeting which you tell us to do.
Please note: occasionally we may need to charge a higher fixed fee for this service. This would be if your situation is complex, or if we need to review extensive documentation before or during the meeting. If this is the case, we will let you know in advance of the meeting.

Service
Prenup / Postnup / Cohabitation agreement
Comprehensive initial review
Pricing
£300 Excluding VAT
£360 Including 20% VAT
Timescale for completion
Normally within a week of you contacting us
Includes

One meeting with a senior solicitor to review your family circumstances and your financial situation, advise on what is achievable with an agreement, the legal requirements, the process, the best way to introduce the idea of an agreement, and the likely overall cost of the agreement.

Excludes

Any work on the agreement itself

Service
Divorce
You as sole applicant
Pricing
£1043 Excluding VAT
£1133 Including 20% VAT
Timescale for completion
Can complete within 7 months if it is appropriate for your situation, and if there are no disputes over jurisdiction.
Includes

Court fee of £593.
All steps required throughout the divorce process.
A comprehensive initial review will be needed prior to us undertaking your divorce.

Excludes

Any initial advice on your matrimonial situation. For this, you need our comprehensive initial review.
Any advice on whether you should apply for divorce on your own, or jointly (we will do this during our comprehensive initial review).
Any issues regarding the finances of your marriage, or your children
Dealing with difficulties in serving the divorce proceedings.
Making a claim for costs in the divorce proceedings.
Where your spouse is in another country.

Service
Converting an agreement regarding matrimonial finances into a Court order
Pricing
Tier 1
£1658 Excluding VAT
£1978 Including 20% VAT
Covering situations like: Lump sum payment, transfer or immediate sale of a single property, sharing a single pension
Tier 2
£2658 Excluding VAT
£3178 Including 20% VAT
Covering more complex situations like: Ongoing maintenance, multiple properties, continued occupation + deferred sale of a single property, sharing multiple pensions.
Tier 3
Bespoke Quote
Covering situations like trading businesses, trusts, international, third parties (in addition to you and your spouse).
Timescale for completion
Can normally complete drafting work within 4 weeks, but this depends on co-operation from your spouse. Normally at least 4 more weeks for court approval.
Includes

Court fee of £58.
Drafting the court order and negotiating the wording with your spouse or their lawyer.
Completing the D81 Statement of Information for a Consent Order (minimum 23 pages) and negotiating the wording with your spouse or their lawyer (no more than 2 redrafts of either the order or the Statement of Information).
Completing any other required documentation (e.g. Pension enquiry form, Pension sharing annex).

Excludes

Negotiating the agreement (if you and your spouse haven’t already reached one).
Advising you on whether the agreement is fair. For this you need our comprehensive initial review.
Dealing with any queries raised by the court.
Attending any hearings.

Please note: We will advise you on what Tier your situation falls into before commencing work on the Court order.

Service
Will writing
Pricing
Single Person
£310 Excluding VAT
£372 Including 20% VAT
Couple (Mirror Wills)
£470 Excluding VAT
£564 Including 20% VAT
Timescale for completion
Can complete on same day as meeting if need be.
Includes

Initial solicitor meeting, up to 1 hour.
Alerting you to potential inheritance tax issues. Up to 2 redrafts.

Excludes

Advising on or creating complex tax structures, trusts or overseas assets.
Non-domicile issues. Storage of your Will.

Service
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA*)
*There are two types of LPA: Health and Welfare, and Financial Affairs. You can have one or both
Pricing
Single type of LPA for one person
£270 Excluding VAT
£324 Including 20% VAT
Both types of LPA for one person / single type of LPA for a couple
£510 Excluding VAT
£612 Including 20% VAT
Both types of LPA for a couple
£890 Excluding VAT
£1068 Including 20% VAT
Timescale for completion
Can complete on same day as meeting if need be.
Includes

Initial meeting with a solicitor
Registering the LPA

Excludes

Office of the Public Guardian
(OPG) fees of £82 per LPA

Service
Probate Work, Pricing and Timescale
Pricing
Timescale for completion
Please see further down this page for typical timescales.
Includes

As every estate administration is different and unique on it`s facts, we do not charge fixed fees and instead charge on an hourly rate basis for all work (see below list of rates).

The majority of the work will be carried out by solicitors Judith Chesters (Qualified 1990) ,or Chris Strogen (Qualified 1991), assisted by legal assistants Katie Leake and Tracey Carney, and supervised by one of our Directors’.

We can give an  estimate of the likely charges involved in a probate matter after an initial meeting or discussion. Such a discussion is without obligation.

Please see further down this page for details of the typical work involved, and our typical fees and expenses, for Probate Grants. We have listed everything here that is normally expected to be done / incurred.

Excludes

For all of the above fixed fee work, we will send you an invoice for 50% of our fixed fee (and any expenses) before we start our work, which will need to be paid before we start our work, and an invoice for the remaining 50% of our fee shortly prior to completion of our work, which will need to be paid before we complete our work.

Our Hourly Rates

Unless we agree a fixed price with you for our work, our fees are calculated on an hourly rate basis. All activity is charged according to the exact number of minutes it takes. Unlike all other law firms, we do not have a minimum charging unit of six minutes, which we think is outdated and unfair. Our hourly rates are as follows, and in order to provide you with an efficient and cost effective service, any or all of the following people may carry out work on your matter.

We will provide you with an estimate of our likely overall charges and expenses once we know enough about your case, which is normally after we have had initial contact with the other parties.

Louise Halford

Solicitor & Founding Director

  • Children issues arising from relationship breakdown
  • Child contact and living arrangements
  • Complex and intractable cases
  • UK and international relocation
  • International child abduction
Standard Rate
£300 Excluding VAT
£360 Including 20% VAT

Robin Charrot

Solicitor & Founding Director

  • Divorce
  • Marital finances
  • Cases with high levels of assets, international or offshore elements, trusts (including advising trustees) and companies
  • Prenups and postnups, including agreements with international elements and trusts
  • Cohabitation agreements
  • Surrogacy and adoption (both in the UK and international)
Standard Rate
£300 Excluding VAT
£360 Including 20% VAT

Alison Barnett

Solicitor

  • Divorce
  • Financial orders on divorce including both complex cases with substantial assets and those with much more limited assets
  • Children issues arising from relationship breakdown both in respect of living and contact arrangements and financial issues
  • Separation, Prenup and Postnup agreements
  • Cohabitation agreements
Standard Rate
£260 Excluding VAT
£312 Including 20% VAT

Andrew Lee

Solicitor

  • Relationship breakdown
  • Financial matters
  • Prenups
  • Divorce
  • Cohabitee disputes
  • High value trusts
  • Business interests
  • Farms
  • Children
  • Injunction proceedings
Standard Rate
£260 Excluding VAT
£312 Including 20% VAT

Chris Strogen

Solicitor

  • Private client work
  • Will drafting
  • Probate
  • Estate Administration
  • Lasting Powers of Attorney
Standard Rate
£240 Excluding VAT
£288 Including 20% VAT

Debra Lowy

Solicitor

  • Divorce
  • Financial issues on divorce
  • Cohabitation disputes
  • Children issues arising from relationship breakdown
  • Special Guardianship applications
  • Pre-nuptial agreements
  • Separation agreements
  • Cohabitation agreements
Standard Rate
£260 Excluding VAT
£312 Including 20% VAT

Judith Chesters

Solicitor

  • Private Client lawyer
  • Will drafting
  • Probate
  • Estate Administration
  • Lasting Powers of Attorney
Standard Rate
£240 Excluding VAT
£288 Including 20% VAT

Rachael Wood

Solicitor

  • Divorce
  • Financial Remedy
  • Cohabitee Disputes
  • Separation Agreements
  • Pre-nup and Post-nup Agreements
  • Private Children Law
  • Financial Settlements for Children – Schedule 1
  • Domestic Abuse
Standard Rate
£260 Excluding VAT
£312 Including 20% VAT

Eluned Roberts

Solicitor

  • Divorce
  • Financial Remedy
  • Cohabitee Disputes
  • Separation Agreements
  • Cohabitation Agreements
  • Pre-nup and Post-nup Agreements
  • Child Arrangements
  • Special Guardianship applications
  • Financial settlements for Children – Schedule 1
  • Domestic Abuse
  • Collaborative Law
  • Amicable Divorce through one lawyer for one couple
Standard Rate
£240 Excluding VAT
£288 Including 20% VAT
One Lawyer Service
£270 Excluding VAT
£324 Including 20% VAT

Amber Oakley

Solicitor

  • Children issues arising from relationship breakdown
  • Child contact and living arrangements
  • UK and international relocation
  • Assisting grandparents in contact disputes
  • International child abduction
  • Divorce
  • Marital finances
Standard Rate
£190 Excluding VAT
£228 Including 20% VAT

Sarah-Jane Whittaker

Solicitor

  • Divorce
  • Marital Finances
  • Cohabitation Disputes
  • Pre-nuptial Agreements
  • Separation Agreements
  • Cohabitation Agreements
  • Children + Contact arrangements
Standard Rate
£170 Excluding VAT
£204 Including 20% VAT

Lauren Riley

Solicitor

  • Children issues arising from relationship breakdown
  • Child contact and living arrangements
  • Complex and intractable cases
  • Domestic Abuse
  • UK and international relocation
  • Assisting grandparents in contact disputes
  • International child abduction
Standard Rate
£200 Excluding VAT
£240 Including 20% VAT

Zoë Kalton-Morris

Compliance Manager

Standard Rate
£130 Excluding VAT
£156 Including 20% VAT

Georgina Hill-Jones

Paralegal

Standard Rate
£130 Excluding VAT
£156 Including 20% VAT

Stephanie Richardson

Office Manager

Standard Rate
£100 Excluding VAT
£120 Including 20% VAT

Tracey Carney

Legal Assistant

Standard Rate
£100 Excluding VAT
£120 Including 20% VAT

Katie Leake

Legal Assistant

Standard Rate
£100 Excluding VAT
£120 Including 20% VAT

Elizabeth Halford

Legal Assistant

Standard Rate
£100 Excluding VAT
£120 Including 20% VAT

For any travel on your matter we charge 50% of the person’s hourly rate. We will invoice you for our hourly rate-based charges and any expenses on a monthly basis, which are payable straight away, unless we are undertaking a very high level of work for you, in which case we may submit invoices more frequently.

Expenses

Our day to day office overheads (for example printing and copying) are included in our above charges. Any expenses under £200 (for example Land Registry fees or parking charges) will be paid by us and then added to our invoices. For any expenses over £200 (for example a property valuer) we will normally ask you to pay the expense directly. Whenever we use a barrister, we will ask you to pay their fee to us before it is incurred.

Probate Grants

Not all estates require a grant of probate. Some smaller estates where no house is owned can be dealt with informally using a bank or building society`s internal procedure.

Where a grant is required, whether there is a will or not (an intestacy) the work required is broadly of two types, completing the appropriate Inheritance Tax Return and completing the Oath to be signed by the executors or administrators setting out their entitlement to act and confirming their acceptance of the legal responsibility.

After the grant is obtained, we will complete as much of the administration work as the executors require.

Applying for a Grant of Probate only, where there is a will and no help with administration is required and only a short form tax return is needed (as no tax is payable )will typically cost £900 – £1200 including 20% VAT.

If a long-form tax return is required as tax is due before the grant can be issued, our fees for the whole of this Grant stage will typically be £1,750-£2,000 including 20% VAT.

In both cases the following work will be required:

  • checking for the existence and validity of a will or applying the rules of intestacy
  • obtaining valuations of estate assets to inform the tax return and oath application
  • applying for the grant of probate
  • assessing and dealing with any claims on the estate, considering any variations
  • liaising with the representatives and beneficiaries to the estate, corresponding with all relevant financial institutions and organisations
  • where Inheritance Tax is payable, assisting in the release of funds

If administration support is needed we can:

  • gather in the assets using the grant
  • transfer any jointly held assets, assist with transferring ISA benefits
  • prepare estate accounts and distribute legacies
  • complete and file tax returns for the year of death, liaising with accountants if required
  • assist with any IHT corrective accounts if assets have increased during the administration, consider Capital Gains Tax with appropriation out where possible, completing the tax return for the administration period
  • consider any ongoing responsibilities for executors becoming trustees to give effect to will trusts and for example manage money for children until they become of age
  • create final estate accounts

Typically, in the smaller estates the administration phase might involve further fees of £900 including 20% VAT, the larger estates will vary depending on the number and complexity of assets held and could exceed a further £1,440 including 20% VAT.

Obtaining a simple grant can take as little as 12 weeks for our work and for a larger estate this may be 6-9 months. The probate registry response time is officially (as at 2024), 16 weeks and HMRC can require similar time for the tax return to be considered in addition.

The time for the post grant administration period will depend on the extent of the assets and the speed of response of the banks and indeed HMRC. The likely timescale for this part of our work is 2-6 months.

The fees that may be payable to other organisations include

  • Probate Fees paid to Court £273 (no VAT)
  • Copy fees per grant £1.50 (no VAT)
  • Advertisements for debtors under the Trustee Act: We would estimate these fees at £300 (including 20% VAT) depending on the range of notices required.
  • Copy Death Certificate £10 (no VAT)

Other occasional fees may include tracing fees for an individual £90 (inc. 20% VAT), for HMLR records £6 (no VAT), professional valuations for shares from £75 (inc. 20% VAT), replacing lost share certificates from £30 (inc. 20% VAT)