Nigel Beaman is a member of the Solicitors Family Law Association and one of the few solicitors Accredited as a Family Law Specialist in Advocacy in Ancillary Relief and Child law cases.

The practice deals with divorce; this can be broken down into 2 parts

• The Decree proceedings, leading to a Decree Nisi and later a Decree Absolute.
• Ancillary Relief proceedings, where the issues of property, money and pension rights, are resolved, and disputes over Residence and Contact with children.

Whilst legal aid is not available, through this practice, arrangements can be made for payment by instalments, with costs estimates being given in advance.

For example, a straightforward petition for divorce, which was not defended, would normally take about 3 hours of my time, which would equate to costs of £375.00 plus vat, with Court fees generally amounting to £180.00, plus, in some cases £7.00 in Commissioners fees. Please note this is not a quotation, it is an example; each client would be given an individual estimate and the opportunity to agree costs before they were incurred.

A preliminary interview, to obtain initial instructions on both the divorce, and any ancillary relief issues, and give preliminary advice, would normally take an hour, with the first 20 minutes of that free, resulting in a charge of £85.00 plus vat; (that hour is part of the estimated 3 hours, mentioned in the preceding paragraph).

At the Preliminary meeting, I would give an estimate of the costs of dealing with ancillary relief issues.

Where parties have already agreed financial matters between them, it is recommended that a consent order be obtained from court in the terms agreed, to produce certainty and finality. To obtain such an order, both parties have to make financial disclosure, and in some respects the costs of obtaining such an order depend upon free and frank disclosure being made, but if time has to be spent on urging parties to make or add to disclosure, this adds to the time spent and therefore the costs.

In all cases I am prepared to agree a "ceiling" on costs, to a specified point, in the proceedings with a review then to be carried out, and the client's agreement obtained, before incurring costs in excess of that ceiling.