Black Antelope Law is regulated by the Bar Standards Board (“the BSB”); and the BSB has brought in new transparency rules, following the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendation in December 2016 that the legal regulators deliver a step change in transparency standards to help consumers understand the price and service they will receive, what redress is available and the regulatory status of their provider.

Black Antelope Law is committed to providing clear price and service information in line with the BSB price transparency guidelines.

We are registered for VAT under registration number 287 3315 82.  We are, therefore, required to add VAT to our charges at the rate in force at the time (currently 20%) to fixed prices, estimates and fees. VAT may also be added to some disbursements.

The mandatory rules state that we must:

State our organisation’s most commonly used pricing models for legal services

Unless an alternative basis of charging is agreed with you, our professional fees exclusive of VAT are based on the time spent dealing with your matter. Our staff’s time spent progressing the matter is charged out at an hourly rate, which reflects their specialism/experience and overhead costs. Where applicable, our hourly rates to be applied are set out in our client care letter too. Our hourly rates are between £126 to £373. VAT will be added where applicable.

The hourly rates above are reviewed periodically but we reserve the right to alter rates at other times. We reserve the right to add an uplift to our hourly rates to take into account factors such as: complexity, value, importance to you (the client), the particular expertise of the fee earner and urgency. You will be notified of any changes to the rates. If you wish to cease instructing the firm as a result of any increase in rates, you are free to do so.

In assessing the time spent on this matter, the person with the responsibility for drafting the bill will take into account the following: the time spent in attendances; drafting routine letters/emails and documents, making and receiving telephone attendances/texts; perusal and consideration of documents; consideration of letters received, consideration of strategy; legal research, travelling; weighting; advocacy; file opening and compliance procedures; preparation; preparing attendance notes and providing copies of documents for you after completion of your matter.

We record time in six-minute units (and the time recorded is rounded up to the nearest whole unit) for all work undertaken on your behalf and this is then charged at the appropriate percentage of the relevant hourly rate. Both SMS messages and emails, sent and received, a charge or items of work and will be charged on the same basis as letters.

Although we aim to provide you with the best possible information about current costs incurred and likely overall cost to be incurred throughout your matter on a regular basis; an update on unbilled work in progress and incurred disbursements value is always available to you upon request.

Although hourly rates are our main basis of charging, we are flexible and may have agreed with you an alternative charge method in our client care letter to you. If you continue further below, we have highlighted the various funding methods that we offer and accept.

State the areas of practice and provide a description of the organisation’s most commonly provided legal services

You can find our practice areas and a description of exactly the services we provide by hovering over “expertise” tab on our home page.

Provide information about the factors which might influence the timescales of chambers’ most commonly provided legal services

When our lawyers are instructed to provide advisory work, unless otherwise agreed, we expect to return work within 14 days and we will aim to keep you informed if that changes for any reason, for example due to the client not providing timely and complete instructions; illness; or urgent court work on another matter.

When our lawyers are instructed to provide services regarding litigation, timescales will usually depend on similar factors mentioned with regard to advisory work, plus response times of the court; the opponent; and any other third parties directly involved in the litigation, such as expert witnesses for example.

Display information about the complaints procedure, any right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), how to complain to the LeO, and any time limits for making a complaint

You can view our Complaint’s Procedure here.

Paying privately 

For many individuals and businesses, it is simple and cost effective to pay our costs privately. Our normal basis for charging is at hourly rates based on the experience of the lawyer working on your matter and complexity.

We also offer competitive fixed fee options, depending on the nature of your case and where the circumstances require, we can also accept payment by instalments by direct debit.

To assist with financial planning, we can also offer unbundled services in which we break down litigation into its various stages and charge for each stage separately.

No Win No Fee / Conditional Fee Agreement

Where we feel your case has good prospects of success, we may offer to enter into a conditional fee agreement with you. This means that we will take the risk that we may not receive payment at all for our services as well as delay receiving payment if we are successful. If successful, we will normally recover the majority of our costs from the other side, and success fee from the compensation awarded to you at a percentage that is agreed upon at the outset of the agreement.

Damages Based Agreements 

Another option that we can consider is a DBA in which we agree to recover our fees in the form of a fixed percentage of the damages you receive if you are successful in your claim. This means no upfront payments for you in respect of our fees and no payment at all if you do not receive any damages.

Legal Expenses Insurance

Many home and motor insurance policies have legal expenses cover attached to them. If you are uncertain, we are happy to review your policy documents to check whether such cover is available and to what extent, and liaise with your insurers to start the process.

Crowdfunding 

Black Antelope Law has adopted CrowdJustice as our crowdfunding solution. This unique platform allows you to fundraise privately or from the public at large to pay your legal fees. Simply create your campaign for legal action on the CrowdJustice page, confirm that you have instructed us as your lawyers and start fundraising. Any monies raised will be paid directly to us by the CrowdJustice platform, so you do not need to worry about handling fees. This platform can be used for all types of cases large and small, international, nationwide or local. There are no criteria for launching your CrowdJustice page other than having instructed a lawyer.