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Our Fees/Documents

OUR FEES

If we are unable to offer Legal Aid, Eastgate Chambers’  fees for private clients are;

Magistrates Court – First Hearing – (Summary only/Motoring cases)

  • From £200+ 20% VAT = £240 per hour TOTAL + disbursements (general or specific*)

Please note; the above is based on 1 hearing with a minimum of £300 + VAT (£360) payable on account in cleared funds before or on the day of the hearing.  This includes representation by an experienced Criminal Defence Solicitor of many years experience supervised by another Solicitor of considerable experience from our team, and follow-up advice. For full details of their experience, please see the Team details on this website

*If it is necessary to incur additional specific case disbursements (such as instructing an expert or an interpreter/translator) we will give you prior notice of the amount and will indicate whether or not it is subject to VAT. Alternative quotes will be provided on request and these will be discussed and agreed with you beforehand.

Typical Timescales will be outlined fully in the Terms of Business and Advice letter sent to you at the beginning of your case.

Guilty plea Fixed Fee £300 + 20% VAT = £360 TOTAL + disbursements (general or specific*)

Fee includes:
– 2 hours attendance/preparation:
– considering evidence
– taking your instructions
– providing advice on likely sentence
– Attendance and representation at a single hearing at the Magistrates Court

– General disbursements such as travel expenses to Court

– The fee does not include:
– instruction of any expert witnesses
– taking statements from any witnesses
– advice and assistance in relation to a special reasons hearing
– advice or assistance in relation to any appeal

The key stages of your matter are based on the presumption that you have entered a guilty
plea and have a date for your hearing.
– Meet with your solicitor to provide instructions on what happened.
– We will consider initial disclosure, and any other evidence and provide advice.
– Arranging to take any witness statements if necessary 
– We will explain the court procedure to you so you know what to expect on the day of your
hearing, and the sentencing options available to the court.
– We will conduct any further preparatory work, obtain further instructions from you if
necessary and answer any follow up queries you have.
We cannot provide a timescale of when your hearing will take place, as this depends on the
court listing for that day.
We will attend court on the day and meet with you before going before the court. We
anticipate being at court for [e.g. half a day].
We will discuss the outcome with you. If advice is required on appeal, this will carry an
additional cost.

TRIALS from £1,000 + 20% VAT – £1,200 TOTAL + disbursements (general or specific*)

The fee will include;

– Attendance either before or at the Plea hearing, advising on Plea after perusal of initial details of the Prosecution Case, and taking your instructions thereon.

– Completing the Trial Preparation Form, travel to Court, waiting and Advocacy

– Further attendances on you and any witnesses, perusing and advising on any additional evidence served

– Dealing with any specific Applications such as; Bad Character Applications (where the Prosecution seek to reveal details of any previous bad behaviour by you) or Special Measures Applications (e.g. Witnesses being allowed to give their evidence by video or behind a screen).

– Attendance at Trial by way of a further hearing, cross-examining witnesses, presenting your case and making Legal Submissions, including travel and waiting at this hearing.

In the event of conviction, attendance at the further Sentencing hearing, providing advice in relation to likely sentence, where we cannot anticipate the likely sentence, advice on the options available to the
court in relation to sentencing,  putting forward personal mitigation, and to include any travel and waiting at that hearing.

We will discuss the outcome with you. If advice is required on appeal, this may carry an additional cost.

Immigration (non-Asylum)

All the figures given below include VAT charged at 20% unless specifically stated. However, charging VAT in relation to immigration matters may depend on where you live and what immigration permission you have. We will confirm whether VAT (at a rate of 20%) is payable when you instruct us and we can work out if VAT is properly chargeable.

  • Initial Consultation £125 + 20% VAT = £150).

(includes appointment and detailed advice letter)

  • Entry  Clearance (single applicant) – from £750 + VAT (£900).
  • Leave to Remain (single applicant) – from £750 + VAT (£900).
  • British Citizenship (single applicant) – from £700 + VAT (£840).
  • Business related applications/Skilled Worker – from £750 + VAT (£900)
  • Appeals reviewed & lodged (only) from £300 + VAT (£360).
  • Detailed Grounds of Appeal from £500 + VAT (£600).
  • Appeal Hearings from £500 + VAT (£600)  (Price range is £500-£1500 + VAT).
  • Appeal Hearings (acting for instructing Solicitors) from £350 + Vat (£420).  Case Management Review Hearings from £175 + VAT (£210)

Please Note;

Applications for leave to remain

In most cases we will agree a Fixed Fee with you once you have accepted our advice and Terms of Business following an initial consultation. However, when we decide that your case is better suited to an Hourly Rate this is;

Hourly rate: £125 + VAT (£150 total) – if VAT applies (see above).

On average, this type of work takes between 5-15 hours to complete. This means that on average costs are between £750 and £2,250.
The exact number of hours it will take depends on the circumstances in your case. Such as:
– The amount of supporting evidence that we need to consider

– Which language(s) you speak
– Whether you are applying with other dependants
– If you are able to provide sufficient evidence at our first meeting and clearly meet the applicable Immigration Rules, the cost is likely to be at the lower end of this range.

What services are included;
The work will involve:
– discussing your circumstances in detail and confirming whether this is the most appropriate application for you to make and what other options may be available to you;
– giving you advice about the requirements of the Immigration Rules and whether you meet the criteria.
– if you do not fulfil certain criteria, whether this can be overcome and how, which on average takes 5 hours;
– considering the supporting evidence you have provided, which we anticipate will take 2 to 3 hours*;
– where necessary, helping you obtain further evidence (such as medical records and bank statements), including taking statements of any witnesses;
– preparing your application and submitting it on your behalf, which we anticipate will take 2-3 hours;

Attendance at a Home Office interview:

If the Home Office ask you to attend an interview, we will give you clear advice (and discuss the possibility of us
attending with you) at the appropriate time. This could be between 1 and 2 hours of work.

Giving you advice about the outcome of the application and any further steps you need to take.

*the amount of hours depends on the number of documents, whether they need to be translated, whether anything is missing and how long it will take to obtain the missing documents

Disbursements (not included in costs set out above):
– Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as visa fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. In the majority of cases this will involve you providing credit or debit card details to us and authorising us to make payments of such disbursements (as avised and agree) on your behalf. This will always be done with you present, either in person at one of our offices, or remotely by Teams or Zoom. Please note that for security, we do not store any credit or debit card details on our systems.

– Interpreters fees at £28 (plus VAT if they are VAT registered) per hour.

This kind of application will normally require between 2-3 hours with an interpreter, depending on the complexity
of your case, and how many appointments you require.

– Independent expert reports e.g. medical experts. These are not required in the majority of cases: we will let you know as soon as possible if we consider an expert report is necessary, and will advise you of likely costs. We will normally obtain more than one quote once we have identified the most suitable expert and will discuss this with your before instructing an expert.

Where the Home Office refuse your application

– advice and assistance in relation to any appeal is included however, submitting an appeal and asscociated work (such as drafting Grounds of Appeal) is charged extra.

How long will my application take?

– We cannot guarantee how long the Home Office will take to process your application. Current processing times are sometimes published on the Home Office/UK Visas & Immigraiton websites (depending on the type of application)
– We will normally be able to submit this type of application within 2-4 weeks of you instructing us, but we will let you know at the earliest opportunity if it is likely to take longer than this. In some cases, where there is an urgent deadline to submit an application, work will be carried out immediately based on verbal advice during an initial consultation with written advice following thereafter. 
– Please note the anticipated number of hours and fees are an estimate based on the facts above. All applications are likely to vary and of course, we can give you a more accurate estimate once we have more information about your specific case.

NB; ALL CASES regardless of whether FIXED FEE or HOURLY RATE

  • Typical Timescales for individual cases will be outlined in our Terms of Business and Advice letter that will be sent to you at the beginning of your case
  • the Price range for Appeal Hearings depends on the complexity of the case.
  • Fixed Fee packages are available for all aspects of an Appeal or on an individual stage basis/instalments as above.
  • Normal disbursements such as postage are included in the above prices.
  • If it is necessary to incur additional case specific disbursements such as instructing a Country Expert, Interpreter or Translation of documents (in non Legal Aid funded cases), we will  give you prior notification of the amount and indicate whether if is subject to VAT.  Alternative quotes will be provided on request and will be discussed and agreed with you beforehand.
  • Home Office/UKVI application fees, Biometric Enrolment and the Immigration Health Surcharge are NOT included in the above prices
  • Discounts may be offered to existing clients making repeat/alternative category applications. If we are submitting a separte application for a family member at the same time as your application, in most cases we will be able to offer a discount to you both. At times we may run promotions for new customers and these will be marketed through our social media channels.
  • All Immigration fees include advice from a Senior Immigration Caseworker or Solicitor accredited by the Law Society since 2012 (Simon Clark), supervised by another experienced Solicitor (who qualified in 1979). The advice will be provided either in person or remotely and in writing. Fees include all appointments and correspondence.
  • FOR FULL DETAILS OF THE EXPERIENCE OF OUR STAFF PLEASE SEE THE TEAM SECTION ON THIS WEBSITE
  • THIS INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST IN ALTERNATIVE FORMATS.
  • ALL FEES QUOTED ARE OUTLINED FULLY IN OUR TERMS OF BUSINESS LETTERS.
  • SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED ARE OUTLINED FULLY IN OUR TERMS OF BUSINESS LETTERS OR AS AGREED ON TAKING INSTRUCTIONS ON URGENT CASES AND INCLUDE TIME-SCALES FOR INDIVIDUAL CASES
  • COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE;
    If you wish to make a complaint about your matter, you should
  • 1. Contact Chris Clark who is the Client Care Director. He will then try to resolve the matter between you and the fee earner concerned. If your complaint is about Mr. Clark, please contact Kenneth Calladine.  As set out in our complaints procedure (available on request) if after investigation you are not happy with the proposed resolution, you have the right to a redetermination by another Director. You may also have the right to object to our bill by applying to the court for an assessment under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. 
  • 2. If you are not satisfied with our handling of it you can ask the Legal Ombudsman of PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ to consider the complaint. Email [email protected]. Telephone 0300 555 1777. Website www.legalombudsman.org.uk. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
    Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint
    and
    No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being
    complained about; or
    No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have
    known that there was cause for complaint.
  • 3. If you have cause to complain about our behaviour you should contact our Regulator, the SRA. Please visit their website for details on how to raise such concerns with them.

  • EASTGATE CHAMBERS COVID-19 BUSINESS CONTINUITY POLICY

    1. Our offices are ALL fully reopened.

    ALL OFFICES.

    Please note that whilst our offices are now open that we made changes to the reception areas to comply with guidelines for safe reopening and following Covid-19 Risk Assessments. We no longer have a manned reception at our Stafford office – please press the intercom when you arrive to be let in to the building by a member of staff. At our Wrexham Office, the shared reception area is manned.

    Please do not attend our offices if you have any Covid-19 symptoms or have tested positive. Our staff do not attend offices if they have tested positive.  Wearing a face mask is entirely voluntary.  Social distancing is encouraged within our offices and meeting rooms will be be ventilated where possible to minimise the risk of transmission of Covid-19.

    PLEASE NOTE – THIS POLICY IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE UPON FURTHER GOVERNMENT GUIDANCE OR INSTRUCTION

    V.7.0. 6th October 2022