Your Legal Costs

Businesses and individual clients alike tell us that the cost of legal advice is a common concern, particularly when it is not certain what those costs will be.  To address this concern we make a simple commitment to Gotelee’s clients:

Your legal costs will always be clear, with no surprises.
That’s a promise.

We will be up front and transparent about our costs for acting for you, giving you peace of mind – with no fear of hidden legal costs.  What does this mean in practice?  Your lawyer will explain fees and other charges to you in plain English, and confirm the terms in detail in a letter, but the key points are:

Initial interviews

• If you need preliminary advice, we will offer you an initial interview for a fixed price that will be agreed with you in advance.
• You will know exactly how much the initial discussion and advice will cost.
• From that initial meeting the lawyer will know what you want to achieve and will write to you to set out what we can do for you and what the cost will be.

Fixed pricing

• We will quote you a fixed price in advance for the legal work you require from us wherever possible.
• Not all work can be “scoped” in advance, so in some cases we may break the work into stages so you pay a fixed fee for each stage.
• When we quote a fixed price, that is what you will pay for our fees – no more.
• Where we are aware that there are other costs that you will incur in addition to our fees (including for example VAT, Court fees etc) we will make clear at the outset what your liability will be so you can budget for your total costs.
• If your instructions change and you ask us to undertake work which is additional or different to what was agreed, we will agree a revised fixed fee with you if possible.

Clear estimates

• Where the work does not lend itself to fixed fee, for example litigation matters, we will give you a clear estimate and explain how this is calculated.
• Our estimates are a very good guide as to the likely fees, but if your requirements or the circumstances of the case change and the charges may be correspondingly increased or reduced, we will update you so you can budget .

Budgeting

• We will help you budget for payment of your legal fees by offering a variety of payment terms, including advance payment, monthly billing, credit card and standing orders.