Geoffrey Miller Solicitors

Fees & Costs

You do not need to be a celebrity to afford our fees. In fact, in addition to wishing to keep a low profile (See details of our PR service) this is often amongst the reason why many celebrities choose to use us as opposed to other more expensive competitors. We pride ourselves on offering a “Rolls Royce” service, but without the designer price tag!

When you call with your initial enquiry we will indicate the likely level of fees based on the following factors:

• The type of case

  Guilty Pleas start at £1,000 plus VAT

  Not Guilty Pleas start at £1,500 plus VAT

  Appeals start at £3,000 plus VAT

  Alcohol related cases range from between £3,000 to £5,000 plus VAT for a not guilty matter

  Dangerous Driving - The fees for defending a dangerous driving prosecution will depend entirely on the circumstances of the prosecution and whether the case will be heard in the Magistrates’ or Crown Court. Fees start from £5,000 plus VAT for the most straight forward matter

• The Seniority of the Lawyer who conducts your case

  We charge by the hour and the hourly rates vary depending on the experience and seniority of the lawyer with conduct of your case.

• The facts of your case and the evidence gathering process

  If there are many witnesses to support your defence, whilst this may strengthen your case it is also likely to increase the level of the fees you will be asked to pay as taking 10 statements will involve more time on our part than if we only take 1 or 2 statements.

  Many cases we deal with involve medical defences. If we have to instruct a medical expert, we will have to pay them for their report and attendance at court (Although attendance charges can usually be claimed from the court by the expert.)

• Location of the case

  Our main office is in Manchester although we offer a nationwide service. Our fees are structured to take into account your location and the location of the court as we will charge for our travel time in attending court. We are mindful of keeping your costs to a minimum and will do what we can to keep within the fee bracket we suggest at the outset.

  With the exception of guilty plea cases, we are unable to offer fixed fees to our clients. This is because we can often anticipate the direction of a case at the outset but it can go in a completely different direction and frequently does. The most common reason for our requiring additional fees from a client is where a case is adjourned on a trial date. This can be due to lack of court time or due to a request for an adjournment from the prosecution. Please be assured, however, we know that our clients want certainty about our charges and we aim to provide this within the limitations of what we anticipate will be involved in your case.

Defendant’s Costs Order

The primary objective for most clients is to achieve an acquittal or damage limitation. However, if acquitted of an offence, you are likely to be entitled to an order from the court that your costs be assessed and paid from the Court’s central funds.

Guilty Plea/Conviction

If you plead or are found guilty, you will be responsible for payment of your own legal fees which are not refundable along with prosecution costs (Usually less than £500) and possibly also fined in addition to receiving other penalties.

Acquittal

If you are found not guilty after a trial or if the prosecution discontinue their case against you, you will usually be entitled to an order from the court that your costs be “taxed” and paid from the Court Central Funds.

This does not automatically entitle you to a full refund of fees. However, this should result in most, if not all of the costs paid by or due from you being returned to you. This is subject to the amount allowed by the Court being the amount claimed by us. There is little uniformity across the courts and they each have differing views to the reasonableness of our bills when submitted. The attitude of the court to the bills submitted is also something which changes over time. If your bill is not paid in full by the Court, we would prepare representations to argue for a full recovery of costs. However, if such representations do not succeed, it would be open to you to seek a judicial review of the assessment of costs.

Legal Aid

You should be aware that in certain circumstances, you might be eligible for legal aid to either cover or contribute to part of the costs of your case. Broadly, it may be available in cases where the defendant is likely to lose his/her liberty, livelihood or reputation, where the witness evidence meets certain specific criteria, where the defendant will not be able to understand the proceedings or where there is a substantial question of law involved.

We at Geoffrey Miller Solicitors do not provide our services in relation to publicly funded cases. However, some members of AMOL may be prepared to accept cases under the legal aid scheme and if you are simply unable to afford payment of legal fees, you may wish to consult with them.

No Win No Fee

We are sometimes asked if we will deal with cases on a “No Win No Fee” basis. It is unlawful for any criminal case to be funded on this basis and so we can not offer this type of arrangement. We can, however, offer payment plans to suit you and we are able to accept payments by credit card (at no extra cost to you) or by cheque.*

*It is always a condition of our representation that payment of outstanding invoices rendered is made before a final hearing date and we will not, under any circumstances, defer payment of such invoices.