Pricing & Transparancy
Guidance on Our Charges
At McLean & Stewart, we pride ourselves on our transparency when it comes to fees. Our firm carries out many different types of work and we know how important it is for clients to have a clear understanding of their legal costs from the outset.
Guidance on Our Fixed-Fee Charges
For the majority of our work we provide our clients with an upfront fixed fee (please contact us for a specific fee quote).
However, there are many areas of work where a fixed fee is not practical. This is due to the fact that neither you nor we will know how much work will be required to bring matters to an acceptable conclusion. As you will appreciate, legal matters often gives rise to unforeseen complexities and additional work.
Guidance on Our Non-Fixed Fee Charges
If an agreed fixed fee is not to apply then our firm’s fee will be charged on the basis of time spent on the work and on an hourly charging rate, together with an element for responsibility which can vary according to a number of matters, such as urgency, importance of the work to you, amount or value of money or property involved, complexity, difficulty or novelty of the matters, length, and number or importance of documents or papers. The hourly charging rate is reviewed annually and may be increased with effect from the 1st April every year. We shall notify you of any increase in rate.
Explanatory note re our charges
Our Fees are charged at a rate of £300.00 per hour and broken down as follows (fees quoted do not include VAT, which will be charged in addition at the current rate of 20%).
Attendance/Meetings
Although the charge-out rate is said to be £300.00 per hour, this in fact is broken down into ten 6 minute units of £30.00 per 6 minutes.
Letters/Emails Correspondence
Each letter written by us is charged at a rate of one unit per page, a page being 125 words. Where the letter is of a formal nature, (for example a one line letter acknowledging receipt of papers), a half unit only is charged.
Telephone Calls
Telephone calls, and meetings, are charged at a rate of £30.00 per 6 minutes. Where we are engaged at a telephone conversation for 10 minutes, we are therefore entitled to charge a total of £60.00. It may be, however, that the telephone call was of very little substance and in those circumstances we may on the grounds of reasonableness restrict the charges.
Framing Formal Documents
Formal documents may be charged on a basis of up to 4 units per sheet, depending on the circumstances of the case. In general, formal documents will usually be charged at one unit per sheet, a sheet being 250 words in length, and thus a 5 sheet document would be charged at £150.00.
Any estimate given will be for a probable fee based on our experience of the general amount of work involved in a typical transaction. If the work turns out to be more complex than normal, then our estimate may require to be amended. You will be kept advised of any such changes.
Fees which are not agreed in advance, are potentially subject to independent assessment by a Legal Accountant. This process is known as “Taxation”. You are entitled to request our file is taxed if you are not happy with the fee charged. In such a case, the file is passed to the Legal Accountant who will fix what they consider to be a fair and reasonable fee in all the circumstances, including those factors outlined above. The Legal Accountant can fix a fee higher or lower than the fee charged. If it is lower, then we will pay the cost of taxation. However, if they price a higher fee or confirm the fee as charged, then you will be responsible for that fee as well as the Legal Accountants costs.
Along with our Invoice, we will issue a Cash Account detailing our financial dealings. This will include outlays which have been incurred by our firm on your behalf.
We may require you to settle accounts and repay outstanding outlays during the course of the transaction. In such a case, interim Cash Accounts will be issued. We may request funds from you to settle larger outlays, before these are paid by our firm on your behalf.