Steven Wade is a family law advisor (McKenzie Friend) with nearly 20 years of experience helping people represent themselves in court. Having been through the system personally and supported thousands of others since, he knows what it’s like to face the stress, confusion, and pressure of doing it alone. This blog shares practical insights that empower you to take control of your case — without the legal jargon or the hefty solicitor’s bill.
Can I have a free half hour legal advice?
Family Law Assistance
The only alternative to a solicitor.
Can I have a free half hour legal advice?
Have you just googled `Free half hour legal advice?’
It’s something we’ve offered a few times at Family Law Assistance, but the answer nowadays is `no’.
We’re very unusual in this respect – most of our competitors will offer you a free initial consultation to sell to you give you some information to work out what is the best way forward with your situation. If it’s a solicitor, your next meeting (or any other work) will take place once you’ve put money on account (usually something like £500+VAT).
You may even be here because you’re looking for some free advice so there are definitely people out there who will happily provide it.
Back in the day…
When we offered free consultations our diary was full. Sadly, many of the people who booked never showed for the meetings – with our full diary preventing paying clients from booking. Many of those who did show were just looking for free advice.
We worked out that we were being paid for one hour a day, despite working `standard office hours’.
So we decided a great way addressing it was to create our multiple social media accounts across multiple platforms as well as this website with (currently) over 200 blog posts on just about every subject someone going through the family courts is going to experience. We also created downloadable sheets to provide info.
We’re on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and more.
Back to the Future
The upshot of this was we decided to charge for our initial consultations. This meant that we freed our time up to help our paying clients – it let us increase the quality of our services, to provide more time for our clients and produce free resources for everyone.
It’s worked out – our day is filled and it led to us automating a lot of our systems to make it easier for us and our clients – we’re a pretty forward-looking bunch here at HQ!
So what DO you charge if you don’t offer free?
Did I mention we don’t charge an hourly rate either? No? Many of our competitors – as well as offering free consultations – also charge by the hour.
Our meetings are £105+VAT (£126) for a Zoom or phone consultation that usually lasts around 45 minutes. We won’t have an eye on the stopwatch when that happens – your meeting will take as long as it needs to take. After 16 years we’ve got pretty good at getting to the core of the issue you’ve contacted us about; if we’re done in 30 minutes we’d be happy to make small talk to you about the weather, but…
If you need a second meeting (you will do at some point…) it’s going to be the same price – we won’t be asking for a 3-figure sum just to get you on the phone again.
Our system is simple. Proven. Logical.
It’s been 16 years in the making so far and we’re pretty sure you’re going to be glad we spoke…!
This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
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About the author…
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