Family Law International - Divorce, Pre-Nuptial Agreements, Cohabitation, Ancillary Relief.

	Client Charter

	What you can expect from us:				What we expect from you Our Fees Problems Money Laundering
	Your case will at all times will be dealt with by a fully qualified solicitor or barrister who is experienced and specialist in family law. When you initially contact us, we will assign you a lawyer based on their personal expertise in the area of law in which your problem falls. Our lawyers work in teams of two with a named legal clerk who holds a post graduate legal qualification. If your lawyer is unavailable the clerk should be able to assist you. Should your case require a barrister, we will instruct one who again, is expert in the area of law in which your problem falls and who we think is best suited to you. We aim to provide you with a professional, personal service. We aim to develop a close working relationship with you so that we can best understand your needs. We aim to deal with your case as expeditiously and as cost effectively as possible. When you are assigned a lawyer, no-one else will deal with your case without your permission (which we will seek, i.e. when your lawyer is on leave), other than their legal clerk. Rachel Edwards Barrott (rachel@familylawinternational.com) is ultimately responsible for all work done by the firm. If you send your lawyer an email you will either receive a response from them personally as soon as they can deal with it, or you will receive a response informing you that your lawyer is out and the time that they will return and deal with your enquiry. Email is this firm's preferred method of communication due to speed and ease. We would ask that if you want one, you arrange a telephone appointment with your lawyer. Planning appointments in this way helps us to give you an accurate picture of your costs. We would prefer that you did not call your lawyer on an ad-hoc basis as this is more costly to you than emailing him or her, however, we understand that sometimes it will be easier for you to call if you are away from your email terminal. If you telephone your lawyer and they are not available they will return your call as soon as they can. Please be aware that this may be outside normal office hours if for example your lawyer has spent the day at court – if you would prefer not to be contacted outside office hours please advise your lawyer during your initial consultation. As we offer a personal service it is unlikely that another member of the team would be able to deal with your enquiry. To that end we will: Return all emails and calls as quickly as possible on the day received; Communicate with you at a time that is convenient to you, as far as we are able; Copy correspondence to you on receipt and inform you how we intend to deal with it; Be pro-active when managing your file; Keep you fully informed at all times regarding costs and advise you as to cost effective ways of working; Be approachable and professional at all times. We are governed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority ( www.sra.org.uk ), and we abide by the Resolution Code ( www.resolution.org.uk )


	What we expect from you: That you provide any information we request as soon as possible. This is to ensure that your matter proceeds smoothly and quickly towards a conclusion. If we have requested information we often cannot work on your case until we receive it. That you keep us in funds at all times – this keeps our costs down, which is a saving we pass on to you. By that we mean: If we are running your case on an hourly fee basis, we will ask for an initial payment on account and we will invoice you each month for the work done, which we expect you to pay within 7 days. The initial payment on account you provide will be used as part or full payment of the final month's costs. We will not be able to work on your file if it is unfunded at any time – this will run up costs for the firm and thus our other clients. We also ask that you forward us an amount to cover your disbursements (court fees, barrister's fees, expert's fees etc) in advance, shortly before they are required. We will give you plenty of notice for this and tell you the latest possible date by which we expect payment. Please note we will not instruct a barrister or an expert, nor will we pay a court fee unless you have provided us with the funds.
	Our Fees Our hourly rate is £180 per hour plus VAT for the work we do. As far as we are able we will estimate how much your total costs will be, however, largely this depends on the actions of the other party so we will have to amend this estimate from time to time. We will inform you each month what the costs are to date and what we expect the next months' costs to be. Please visit the fees page for more informtion on fixed fees.
	Problems If you have a problem with your lawyer, the service we provide or the way in which your file is being handled, please tell us. Initially, please email your concern to the person who is dealing with your file. They will respond promptly to the matters you have raised and will forward your concern and their response to it to the Principal Solicitor. If you feel unable to do this, or if you are not satisfied with their response, please email the Principal Solicitor, rachel@familylawinternational.com with the details of your complaint. She will contact you via your preferred method as soon as possible. If she cannot resolve your complaint there and then, he will explain and forward to you our Formal Complaints Procedure. If Rachel is dealing with you file, please email Amanda Quinn, the practice manager (and one of our barristers) amanda@familylawinternational.com. She will deal with your complaint as above. We take complaints seriously and want to know if we are doing anything wrong. However, if there is something we have done that you like – please tell us!
	Money Laundering We are required by law, as are all law firms, to have procedures in place to guard against money laundering. Initially we do this by requesting items to prove your identity, such as a certified copy of the photo page of your passport and 2 recent utility bills. Occasionally we will have to investigate matters with you, for instance if you require us to pay your money into an account that is not in your name. Please note we do not accept cash at any time. If we suspect money laundering we have a duty to report it to the appropriate authorities.