At Prime Solicitors, Social responsibility and transparency are part of our culture and we demonstrate these in the way we charge for our work. We therefore aim to provide good and qualitative professional services at reasonable and affordable prices to our clients.

The SRA Transparency Rules 2018 require us to publish our charges in certain services we provide.to the public.

CRIME:

At police station, free legal representation under the legal aid scheme is available for advice and assistance, except if the client declines representation under the legal aid scheme but elect to pay privately.
At the Magistrates Court, Crown Court and other appellate Courts, you may either qualify for full legal aid representation under legal aid or be required to make contributions towards your defence costs. You are entitled to have your case conducted on private basis, outside the legal aid scheme. This can be on agreed fees or charged according to the time spent on your case, in other words, on a hourly basis.
Work not covered under legal aid maybe charged on hourly basis, exclusive of VAT and disbursements.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WHEREVER VAT IS CHARGEABLE THE RATE WILL BE AT 20%. THIS MAY CHANGE IN ACCORDANCE TO GOVERNMENT GUIDANCE. YOU WILL BE NOTIFIED OF ANY CHANGES IF THAT BE THE CASE.

Our hourly rates are as follows:

• £350 per hour for a Director
• £260 per hour for a Solicitor of more than 8 years post qualification
• £226 per hour for a Solicitor of more than 4 years post qualification
• £180 per hour for all other Solicitors
• £160 per hour for Trainee Solicitor
• £120 per hour for paralegals

Circumstances may require us to charge a fixed fee. Fixed fee charges may include the following:

• Representation at first appearance at Magistrates’ Court – £500 + VAT
• Appointment in the office and at first appearance at Magistrates’ Court – £650 + VAT
• One-day trial in the Magistrates Court including preparation – £1,200 + VAT

Advice on appeal will attract an additional cost, based on our hourly rates.

The fee does not include: Instructing expert witnesses, Advice and Assistance in relation to a Special Reasons hearing in a Road Traffic case. Advice on appeal, Barrister’s fees if we have to instruct one in your case.

For more information on our fees and how we can help you can contact us.

MOTORING OFFENCES.

Most motoring offences are paid for on a private basis as legal aid is unlikely to be provided for these offences. The estimate is based on an assumption of a guilty plea.

We offer a fixed fee of £500 plus VAT for a guilty plea. We charge £1200 +VAT for a non-guilty plea.

We have a dedicated team of qualified solicitors to handle all motoring offences. Our crime supervisor is Oladipo Olasoju with a post qualification experience as a defence solicitor of 19years, in our turnpike lane branch we have a dedicated qualified defence solicitor of over 20years in the person of Mr Ayodele Modupe. We are dedicated to provide qualitative and professional service.

Please note that the fee includes:

• 2 Hours attendance/preparation:
• Considering evidence and police disclosure
• Taking your instructions
• Providing advice on likely sentence.
• Attendance and representation at a single hearing at the Magistrates Court
• Fees are exclusive of the following:
• Instructing an expert
• Witness statements. If we have to do that there will be an extra charge of £250 plus VAT.
• Advice and or assistance in relation to Special Reasons Hearing
• Advice and or assistance in relation to any appeal
• Barrister’s fees if we have to instruct one which is usually in the region of £500 plus VAT.

DISBURSEMENTS IN MOTORING OFFENCES

Likely disbursements are medical reports, expert reports on blood alcohol or drug contents, or expert reports on traffic accidents. The cost for these disbursements will be discussed with you upon receipt of the cost estimate and will be agreed with you before they are incurred.

KEY STAGES IN YOUR MOTORING OFFENCE MATTER.
The key stages of your matter are usually as follows:
• Initial meeting with your solicitor to take instructions and review evidence.
• Consideration of evidence and advice

• Explanation of the court procedure and we will advise you on what to expect.
• Completion of any preparatory work ahead of the hearing
• Our solicitor will discuss the sentencing options available to the court and any punishment for the offence
• It is difficult to predict the time scale for the cases this depends on how busy the court list is for the day.
• Our solicitor will usually conduct a prehearing attendance before the hearing this will usually take between 20-30 minutes. The solicitor will go through the case briefly with you and what to expect.
• After the hearing our solicitor will discuss the case and advise you on the merits of an appeal if you lose the case.

 

IMMIGRATION/ASYLUM

• Immigration Appeals to First Tier Tribunal including court fees – £640 plus VAT
• The cost above is split as follows £500 plus VAT for the preparation of grounds of appeal. £140 court fees. VAT is chargeable if you have leave to remain or a status in the only. All legal aid cases are non-vatable and no fees will be charged as the cost is paid by the Legal Aid Agency.
• Advocacy and preparation of bundles and statements- £1000 – £2000 + VAT
• Deportation Appeals Advocacy – £2000 – £3500 + VAT
• Immigration Appeals Upper Tribunal (lodging grounds of appeal, preparing the case and excluding Advocacy) – £1500 to £3000 +VAT
• Application for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK – £1000 – £1500+ VAT excluding home office fees.
• Applications under Private Life route (20 years long residence, 7 years’ continuous residence by a child, including discretionary leave etc) – £1,500 to £2000 + VAT excluding home office fees and IHS fees and any other disbursements involved in making such application.
• Judicial Review – £2000 to £4,000+VAT excluding Advocacy and court fees.
• Application for Naturalisation – £1,000 +VAT
• Application for leave to remain in the UK as family members of a person present and settled in the UK – £1,500 to £2,000+ VAT
• EEA Applications (residence card as a family member of EEA national, retaining rights of residence as a family member after divorce or death, derivative residence card as a primary career, residence card as extended family members, registration certificate as an EEA, permanent residence as an EEA national) – £1,500+VAT
• Extension of leave to remain in the UK (on all categories) – £1,000+VAT
• Application for UK work visas (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 4 and Tier 5) – £2,500 to £3,500+VAT
• Investors Visa – Hourly rate and levels of investments will determine our fees including the client status
• Others category: Hourly rate will apply.
• In respect of advocacy fees, this will be a disbursement in your case and will be agreed with the barrister before we instruct one on your behalf.

What our service involves:
We offer a professional service with very reasonable fees and flexible payment terms for all our clients. We can also accept payment plans subject to suitable guarantees of payment. Whatever fees we agreed, this covers all work relating to your matter including:

• Taking initial instructions
• Providing advice on which documents would be needed for your type of application
• Checking the support documents for the application/appeal
• Preparing the necessary application/appeal forms on your behalf
• Preparing representations in support of your application
• Sending the application form, representations and support evidence to the Home Office
• Representing the client at the tribunal hearings/appeals
• All communication between the Home Office and other agencies concerning your application/appeal until we receive a written decision in your matter.
• Lodging any appeal using the online system

We do not offer refund once we accept your instructions either verbally or in writing. The prices we have published are exclusive of both the Home Office and court fees. Clients will be responsible for these fees as separate costs to our charges. Home Office fees vary depending on the type of the application you are making

TIME ESTIMATE

It is difficult to estimate how long it will take before the Home Office can reach a decision in your matter. This will depend on a case by case and caseworker dealing with the application. However, we can only give a rough estimate that most straightforward cases can take between 3 to 6 months for the Home Office to provide a decision, and complicated cases can take between 6 to 24 months for the Home Office to reach a decision.

DISBURSEMENTS IN IMMIGRATION MATTERS.
Likely disbursement in immigration matter includes court fees, home office fees, barrister’s fees, expert fees, translation costs and interpreters cost, wasted costs, travelling cost, we are unable to give a fixed cost to this items as they vary but we will inform you before the cots are incurred. Please note that some of the disbursements may attract VAT elements.

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE OF PEOPLE CARRYING OUT IMMIGRATION WORK.

Our Immigration supervisor is Mr Adeniyi Adewoye. He is a qualified supervisor to carry out Legal Aid work and he has over 17 years post qualified experience as a solicitor of England and wales. Other member of the team includes Mr Ayo Modupe with over 20 years post qualification as a solicitor of England and wales. Please note that other solicitors may be assigned to do your case and each solicitor is at least 10 years post qualified solicitor.

 

EMPLOYMENT LAW SERVICES:

For each new instruction, we would commence with an initial consultation, which usually lasts for 1 hour, and in which we obtain the background to your matter. Our charges for this are usually £150.00 plus VAT per hour. Should we require information and/or to conduct further work after the meeting before advising you on your position, we would provide you with an estimate of the likely costs. Our hourly rates for such work are usually between £190.00 and £250.00 per hour plus VAT.
VAT is charged at 20%.

Employment Tribunal Representation
Where we are instructed to act on your behalf in respect of an employment tribunal matter, we would always provide you with the clear scope of our instructions, and a guide as to costs for the various stages thereof. Our hourly rates for such work are usually between £200.00 and £275.00 per hour plus VAT (usually 20%)

Advice on Settlement Agreements
Your employer may offer you a settlement agreement when your employment is coming to an end and, where this is the case, your employer will make a contribution to your legal costs in obtaining advice on the terms. Our minimum charge for advising on settlement agreements is £350.00 plus VAT, (Vat is usually charged at 20%) which is subject to the complexity of the terms being proposed. Our fees cover a meeting with you, advising on the terms of the agreement, including any minor amendments (but not negotiation of the offer from your employer) and returning a duly signed copy of the agreement to your employer.

Should you require further advice or for us to enter into discussions with your employer, we shall provide an indication of costs.

The hourly rate to apply to your case will be given to you in your client care letter when you instruct us. Periodically, we will provide you costs information setting out the amount of costs that we have incurred in your matter. Please note that this is not a demand for our fees but an up to date information of how much expenses have been incurred in your matter which will include disbursements or any other expense.

DISBURSEMENTS IN YOUR EMPLOYMENT MATTER.
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees, cost of preparing medical report, expert witnesses, Barristers fees, Subject access requests. We will usually endure that the disbursements are paid so that your case will progress smoothly. You will normally be notified before the disbursement is incurred.

COUNSELS FEES:
In more complex matter we may have to instruct counsel(Barrister). The counsel’s fees is estimated to be between £700 to £1200 per day depending on the experience for attending a Tribunal Hearing (including preparation travel and waiting.)

OTHER FEE ARRANGEMENT.

Please note that we do not normally offer Damages based agreement except in very exceptional circumstances. Damages based agreement is a type of fee arrangement where you will only pay us our fee if you win. The amount you will pay us if you win will be a percentage of the amount of money you recovered from the claim (your award).

KEY STAGES.

The above stated fees will cover the under listed work in relation to the following key stages of your claim:
● Taking your initial instructions. We will review your documents including contract of employment and terms. We will be able to advise you on the merit of the claim, time frame, evidence needed and the level of compensation that you may be entitled to if you win.
● considering if the matter can be settled before going to court and entering into pre claim conciliation where it is mandatory to consider such a move.
● Preparing claim or responding to your employer or other party’s response to your claim
● Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process of the claim.
● preparing or considering a schedule of loss
● Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing
● Exchange of documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents and schedule
● Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
● Reviewing and advising on the other party’s witness statements and complying with court directions.
● agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or case list

● Preparation and attendance at Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel. Attending to you post hearing to give a summary of the proceedings.

Please note that the stages stated above are only a guide and some of stages above may not be reached or required. Your matter may settle before a hearing is conducted. If this be the case, please note that our fees will not change once a fixed fee has been agreed.

HOW LONG WILL YOUR MATTER TAKE TO CONCLUDE?

The time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to the conclusion of your case depends largely on the stage at which your case is concluded. If a settlement is reached during pre-claim conciliation, your case is likely to be concluded within 4-6 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, before an Employment Tribunal, your case is likely to take 26-52 weeks. This is just an estimate and we will be able to give you a more accurate timescale once more information becomes available about the conduct of your case.

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE OF SOLICITOR DEALING WITH EMPLOYMENT MATTERS.

Our Employment matters are handled by Mr Tunde Ezekiel Oyedele who is a very experienced civil litigation solicitor and specialises in Employment matters. He qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and has over 16 years of experience. He has successfully negotiated damages, following unlawful dismissal cases and achieved positive outcomes at the employment Tribunal.