New Services at FLC

FLC is pleased to announce a number of brand new services, including Mediation, Collaborative Law, Self Help Options, a greater range of Fixed Fees and the availability of Divorce Loans.

These alternative services give you greater choice, more flexibility and better control over the cost of your case, leading to better outcomes generally for you and your family.

We understand that finding the money to pay for legal representation can be difficult for many people, not least those who will now be affected by the loss of legal aid, and we hope that our new services will provide some affordable alternative options.

In particular, we have now developed a number of “Self Help Services”, to provide professional support and guidance, should you decide to ‘take the plunge’ and represent yourself.

Self Help Services – Affordable Legal Support

At Family Law Consultancy, we have always offered highly competitive rates and we were the first firm in the region, to the best of our knowledge, to offer the greater certainty and potential choice of fixed fees across our complete range of services. As far as we are aware, this is still currently the case.

Despite our efforts, in these trying economic times, and with the imminent demise of legal aid, we recognise that many more people will simply be unable to afford the benefits of full legal representation and will need to deal with their legal matter themselves. This is known as Self Representation (or sometimes as “acting as a Litigant in Person”).

We understand that this can be daunting, and we have therefore set up various more affordable legal support services to assist you if you are in this situation.

DIY with Support

A more affordable alternative to full legal representation is the ‘DIY’ option with legal support; this is to represent yourself and simply seek our advice as and when you need to. You will still become a formal client of the firm and a retainer will be created between us. However, we will not go on the court record as acting on your behalf and you will self represent, but you will still have the ability to consult us as and when you wish to do so, and you can instruct us to write letters on your behalf, draft documents and advise you at meetings and over the phone or by email.

For example, you may wish to ask us to prepare an application to the court for you and give you instructions on what to do next and how to represent yourself at the first hearing, or you might want to have ad hoc meetings and telephone chats with us as your case progresses.

Fixed fees will usually be available if you require an isolated piece of work to be done or a ‘one off’ appointment. Alternatively, if you wish to have occasional meetings and/or impromptu advice by telephone or email, you can choose to “Pay As You Go” on an hourly rate basis, and we will send you an invoice from time to time. You will need to place funds on account with us in advance for this service, but it does ensure that you only pay for what you use and helps to keep costs down, as you are doing as much of the work as you can and only using us when you feel you need to.

One important point to bear in mind with this level of service, however, is that there is an obligation on you to make sure that you provide us with all relevant information in respect of your case, as it may impact on the advice given to you. In contrast to our full representation service, we may not be kept fully ‘in the loop’ as to developments if you choose to self represent.

FLC Law Shop

We have now opened our “Law Shop” service. The Law Shop is an even more affordable alternative to using us to fully represent you and deal with other people on your behalf, or to choosing our “DIY with Support” option. The Law Shop provides legal advice and other professional support if you want to handle relatively simple legal matters yourself. You get face to face advice and help with legal forms from one of our qualified, regulated and insured lawyers at a lower cost than employing us as solicitors to act on your behalf and provide full representation.

The FLC Law Shop costs just £20 per 20 minute session, including VAT at 20%. It runs on Tuesdays from 2pm to 4pm and Thursdays from 10am to 12 noon. Sessions should be pre booked as they are subject to availability. Payment is required immediately at the start of the session.

The service covers verbal advice only during the face to face sessions and does not include any follow up work such as written confirmation of advice, letter or document preparation, phone calls, emails or representation during the case or at court. However, sessions can be used by anyone seeking help in drafting their own documents and letters.

Unfortunately, Law Shop rates cannot apply to clients using our full representation or “DIY with Support” services, due to the greater level of administrative work required for these services.

Online Options

As a cost effective alternative to our bespoke divorce representation service, we currently offer an online divorce package (presently £250 including VAT - court fees are payable on top), for those who wish to keep costs down by dealing with the divorce process themselves, but who would like a bit of help along the way. Our online divorce package is likely to be best suited to couples where both spouses agree that divorce is the next step, are willing to cooperate with each other during the divorce process, and there are unlikely to be any issues surrounding the divorce itself. The online service provides a document drafting service, together with our support and assistance for uncontested divorces, where there should be no need for any court hearings. It would not be suitable for a defended divorce or where there are other major issues arising from the separation.

You may find it helpful to learn a bit more about the divorce process and whether online divorce is right for you. A Guide and Step by Step information is available on our website via the following link: http://www.flc.uk.com/online-divorce-service.php

Other online services are being developed and updates will be published on our website when available.

Family Mediation

Finally, just a reminder about our new Family Mediation Service! Mediation can save stress, time and money, and help reach an agreement that works for you, in a neutral and comfortable setting. The mediation process is voluntary and confidential. Its aim is to help with joint decision making, so as to avoid any need to go to court. Freely negotiated agreements reached through effective mediation can help restore communication, understanding and trust, and lead to a much healthier long term outcome for all concerned, most importantly any children.

Mediation may not be suitable for everyone, but it is always well wrth considering, even if your initial thoughts are that it would not work in your case, as it can have many benefits and be a much more positive and cost effective way to resolve family difficulties.

Except in emergency or exceptional circumstances, the courts will also now expect anyone seeking to apply to the court to have at least attended an information meeting about mediation, before allowing an application to proceed.

Please note that we cannot provide mediation services to those who instruct us to provide legal advice and representation, or provide legal representation to those who engage our mediation service, due to the potential conflict of interests that could arise and the need for mediation to be impartial. We can, however, refer you to another local mediation service if you are a legal client of ours, or direct you to an independent legal advisor if you are using our own mediation service.

We hope you find our new services of interest. Please check our website from time to time for further developments, or call our office if you have any specific queries.