Our Legal Fees and Paying for them

All of our qualified and unqualified staff are charged out on the basis of hourly rates, which are attributed to each solicitor based on their experience and the value they add to a case. For example, our trainee solicitors and paralegals are charged out at the rate of £100 per hour plus VAT; whilst our Family partners start at the rate of £235 per hour plus VAT. A full breakdown of each solicitor’s hourly rate is available on request.

At all times we aim to keep our hourly rates as reasonable as possible, acknowledging that quality legal advice needs to be accessible and affordable for most households. We believe that our hourly rates are extremely competitive when compared to other firms in London.

We offer clients a variety of different options to help meet their legal fees as follows:

• Fixed fees: Throughout the firm we offer a fixed fee service on a variety of standardised procedures, like conveyancing, will preparation and completing a basic divorce suit.
  
  
• Deferred payment agreements: These are generally offered by the Family Department in large complicated litigation cases, so that payment of our costs is deferred to the conclusion of a case. This form of agreement is not suitable in all cases and various conditions apply.
  
  
• Conditional Fee Agreements: These are generally offered by the Personal Injury Department and are more commonly referred to as “no win, no fee agreements “and our costs are only recovered in the event of the client’s claims succeeding.
  
  
• Matrimonial Fee funding/Litigation Loans: We have teamed up with Heritable Bank to offer clients the opportunity of meeting their legal fees through a specific loan agreement. This has the benefit of deferring payment of the costs to the conclusion of a case and spreading the interest payments throughout the life of the case. Further information is available from the firm on request and from Heritable Bank at www.heritable.co.uk.
  
  
• Public Funding/ Legal Aid: Osbornes continues to be licensed to carry out publicly funded work in the areas of Family law, housing, probate and welfare benefits. The amount of this type of work that we conduct is now strictly controlled and tends to be restricted to complex matters. The eligibility levels and availability change regularly. The most up to date information on both is available at www.legalservices.gov.uk
  

In addition to the fee schemes mentioned above, we operate a pro bono evening advice surgery in most areas of law. The advice surgery takes place on a Tuesday evening and is by appointment only.

For further information regarding any of our funding schemes, please contact our main switchboard and they will put you through to the appropriate department.