Collyer Bristow launches fixed-fee family service

Collyer Bristow’s family law team is the first practice area to respond to the changing legal services market andThe Lawyer understands other practice groups may follow suit if it is deemed successful.

Partner Toby Yerburgh heads the family team, which is also planning to provide clients with capped fees in other areas of family law.

Yerburgh said: “We understand that more and more clients are looking for cost certainty and believe that there’s currently a gap in the market for a family firm to promote a high-quality fixed-fee service for straightforward divorce cases.”

The firm’s business development director Paul Newhall added: “The market for legal services is changing rapidly – this move is an important step in providing our clients with greater choice and transparency.”

Other firms that offer fixed-price family services include Mills & Reeve. In a bid to compete with non-legal players entering the profession on the back of the Legal Services Act, the firm said last year that it would offer staged fees for divorce litigation that could be calculated up front to offer clients certainty over long-term costs (7 November 2011).

Riverview Chambers, which launched as a direct access set with a fixed-fee model across employment, IP and other sectors, also announced a fixed-price divorce service for high-net-worth couples (12 July 2012).