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How much are solicitor fees without legal aid?

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WorriedMum

Member since
July 2019

37 posts

Posted Fri September 27, 2019 6:12amReport post

Has anyone had to self fund their defence?

I don't think my husband will qualify for legal aid as he has a good job (although will need to resign when this comes out). Just wondering approx how much a guilty plea representation is likely to cost all in to budget for it.

I'm struggling at the moment and would love to reach out for some emotional support but don't think I'd feel up to responding to it , so just trying to focus on the practical for now. 3 months post knock.

CornishTea

Member since
August 2019

91 posts

Posted Fri September 27, 2019 8:54amReport post

Hi,

Sorry that you find yourself on this forum. There is always someone around and we understand totally that this is a difficult time.

I can’t fully answer your question but we do not qualify for legal aid either and so are self funding. My husband is pleading not guilty and we will be paying for independent analysis of the computer. I would imagine if he is pleading guilty it will be a fairly flat rate but you will need a barrister in crown court to plead any mitigating circumstances etc. I am sure that your solicitor will be able to give you a ball park figure.

We have savings thankfully but I didn’t expect to have to blow them on something like this!

Xx

Bellarose

Member since
September 2019

25 posts

Posted Fri September 27, 2019 12:27pmReport post

Hi



Sorry you're going through this too.

We self funded, my husband pleaded guilty at magistrates court and it went to crown court. Our bill was £1600 in total which was for solicitor & barrister.

Hope this helps

WorriedMum

Member since
July 2019

37 posts

Posted Fri September 27, 2019 12:34pmReport post

Thankyou so much for your replies.

CornishTea, have you been given an estimate for your circumstances?

BellaRose that's very helpful, thankyou, a much lower figure than I was expecting. I'd imagined around£6000 based on legal aid repayment figures.

Bellarose

Member since
September 2019

25 posts

Posted Fri September 27, 2019 12:45pmReport post

No.problem WorriedMum, obviously I can only go on what we paid and I would guess a not guilty plea would be a lot more expensive. We did have to pay upfront though so that's worth bearing in mind. Some sentences also include fines and costs but we didn't receive either luckily.

mjl73

Member since
August 2019

240 posts

Posted Fri September 27, 2019 9:01pmReport post

I'll have to ask my husband what he paid, it was London so I expect it to be slightly more expensive than in other areas. As Bellarose said, he also had to pay it upfront. He also had to pay court fees of £1500 and vicitim surcharge (not sure how much that was), those had to be paid within 28 days.

Dottie

Member since
June 2019

236 posts

Posted Sat September 28, 2019 8:06amReport post

My husband has been quoted as much as 10,000 for a guilty plea, so who knows what that figure would turn out to be if it was for a not guilty plea. We are still looking into it all.

Magrat

Member since
August 2019

4 posts

Posted Sat September 28, 2019 3:23pmReport post

We have been quoted £240 per hour. This is for a law company which specialises in this type of crime. We have set aside £10,000 and we are fortunate to be able to afford this. Not what I expected our retirement fund to be spent on though.

Partner

Member since
July 2019

221 posts

Posted Sat September 28, 2019 5:28pmReport post

We have self funded for a case, in the past, to not related to this.

Full cost was around £6000. This was a few years ago. If you can somehow afford and awful as it sounds, I'd always advocate self funding if at all possible.

MamaBear

Member since
February 2019

4 posts

Posted Thu October 3, 2019 12:35pmReport post

Hello

we had to pay approx £10’000 for legal fees. This was for a guilty plea. This did include a psychological report done for the court. We used a solicitor who specialised in indecent image offences.

Sorting finances whilst dealing with the emotional side of it all is draining isn’t it?

Dottie

Member since
June 2019

236 posts

Posted Thu October 3, 2019 10:49pmReport post

Mamabear, what sentence did he get? Do you think the specialised solicitor helped? Xx