What is a Separation Agreement?

This is an Agreement for couples who may or may not have been married but who intend to separate.

Financial and other arrangements are set out in a legal document. Your solicitor will obtain the information needed from you and create an agreement for your signature.

What is included in the Fixed Fee?

You will be allocated a solicitor to draft the agreement.

You will be provided with email and direct dial contact number for your solicitor.

The fixed fee assumes that you have agreed the general nature of what you would like to happen if your relationship ends.

The fee includes our work in:

• Obtaining the information we need to be able to draft the agreement
• Telling you of issues you might wish to consider
• Telling you what financial information is needed and putting that in order (you will need to obtain the information yourself) See important note below.
• Drafting the agreement
• Arranging for correct signature
• Storing the original agreement

We make an allowance (in addition to the drafting) for putting items in order, discussions and advice to you. In addition to the completion of all the paperwork we include an allowance of 1 hour discussion with you by phone, e-mail or in person. In the vast majority of cases this is more than sufficient to deal with all the above issues.

The fixed fee is not appropriate in those exceptional cases where there are, for example, a lot of discussions about exactly what should be in the agreement or where there are disagreements between the parties. If you think that this might apply contact Powells and they will provide you with a detailed quote.

The fixed fee excludes advice on what agreement you ought to make as that would be based upon a detailed consideration of all of your financial information and would need reports from IFAs and so on. We will however, advise you of the issues you ought to include in your agreement.

NOTE: The Courts have made clear that this sort of agreement is only likely to be followed by them if both parties have exchanged detailed financial information about their circumstances. This applies even if you believe you know them already.

Why pay a Fixed Fee?

By paying a fixed fee at the start of your case you have certainty about the costs involved. The alternative is to pay an hourly rate (£220 plus VAT) for the time your solicitor spends on your case.