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Family Graduated Fees
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About the scheme
This scheme provides separate payment during the life of a case. It works alongside our existing arrangements for paying solicitors’ profit costs and disbursements.
Benefits include:
- it provides payment as work is done
- there is usually no assessment of costs at the end of the case
- the amount paid is final and predictable, subject only to a review on the assessment of costs at the conclusion of the case
- it provides certainty to both providers and clients.
Changes to Family Graduated Fees - August 2009
Rationale for Change
Annual expenditure on family barristers’ fees is now nearly £26 million per year, higher than it was five years ago. This increase far outstrips any increase in cases.
These changes will help us to reduce net expenditure by £6.5 million a year and refocus resources on some of the most vulnerable families and children in society.
The package of measures will restructure family barrister payments, reduce overall expenditure and refocus resources on high-priority clients.
Given the significant priority we give to public law children cases, these reductions will apply primarily to private family law work.
The Changes
- Abolish the ‘more than two parties’ Special Issue Payment, which provides a 40% increase to fees when claimed in public law cases. We received strong representations from interested parties that this element of the scheme did not represent a sufficiently ‘special’ issue to merit a fee increase - there are more than two parties in the large majority of such cases.
- Redirect most of the funding spent on the ‘more than two parties’ Special Issue Payment into increasing, by £4.4million per annum, the fees paid to barristers for hearings and conferences in child care and supervision proceedings. This will mean an increase in fees paid to lawyers in at least 3,500 of these cases each year.
- In private law disputes concerning child contact or residence, reduce the Special Issue Payments claimable by barristers for conduct issues and additional experts from 50% to 30% and 20% respectively. Both these payments are currently running at 150% of the level intended.
- In private law disputes concerning financial settlement on divorce, abolish the most expensive Special Issue Payments claimable by barristers for issues concerning conduct, analysis of accounts, assets which are outside the control of the parties, and more than one expert. In addition, we intend to reduce the Special Issue Payments claimable for litigants in person or a relevant foreign element from 25% to 20%. All of these payments are running at a level higher than that intended.
- Introduce tighter procedures for barristers’ claims for Special Issue Preparation Fees, which was a suggestion made to us by interested parties. This is an area where fees are running at 800% of the level that anyone expected. Barristers will be required to submit to judges a detailed schedule of the hours spent in preparation so that these payments are only made where appropriate. We will also revise the claim forms so that the basis of any claim is clear.
We are not reducing expenditure in the domestic violence category.
Forms
Please see the forms page for updated forms.
Please also use the following links for updated forms available from the HMCS website.
EX505 - Family Graduated Fees - Written evidence of basis for special preparationEX504 - Graduated Fees Reference to a Judge
Q&A
Please see the documents panel on the right for a Q&A document answering frequently asked questions about the changes to the FGF scheme. This document will be updated as required. Please submit any questions to family@legalservices.gov.uk.
For more information
Please also see the documents panel for:- the Community Legal Service (Funding) (Counsel in Family Proceedings) (Amendment) Order 2008 SI 2008 No 666 - this makes consequential changes to the 2001 Order from 1 April 2008 following the introduction of the Public Law Outline, a new case management system for certain public law cases involving children
- a marked up copy of the Community Legal Service (Funding) (Counsel in Family Proceedings) Order 2001(as amended) - 1 April 2008.
Please also see Guidance for guidance on the April 2008 FGF changes which support the Public Law Outline.
Please also see Documents for:
- the original Funding Order
- the November 2003 Amendments to the Funding Order
- explanatory document on the February 2005 changes
- revised guidance measures (published February 2005)
- a marked up copy of the Funding Order (February 2005)
- old and new rates.
Last updated: 03 August 2009