On-line fees clarity

BILLING: Grindeys goes beyond conveyancing charges

A Stoke-based law firm has introduced transparent fees on its new Web site, allowing users to see immediately how much they will be charged for certain transactions.

Fourteen-partner Grindeys is one of the first firms to launch a service which offers not just quotes for conveyancing but also for a wide range of corporate and private client work.

Users can get an immediate quote for wills, ranging from 60 to 450, and corporate transactions such as directors' service agreements (500), employment contracts (300) and shareholders' agreements (750).

The conveyancing quotes are all-inclusive, and take into account the cost of local searches and various disbursements.

Louise Aspinall, Grindeys' marketing director, who also built the site, said the open billing system was intended to tackle preconceptions about lawyers' billing methods.

'This is a move to clarify billing procedures and make it more obvious to clients exactly what they will and will not be paying for,' she said.

'It also helps people in their purchasing decision - if they know what the price will be, then they are more likely to immediately say yes or no to the service.'

The services which the firm selected to be featured on-line were those which tended to be charged on a fixed-price basis.

However, Ms Aspinall stressed that some of the quoted prices were meant only as a guide.

Other firms which offer transparency over fees include innovative small London practices Kaye Tesler & Co and Sykes Anderson, which publishes its fee-earners' charge-out rates on its site.

LINKS: www.grindeys.co.ukwww.kt.uklaw.netwww.sykesanderson.com

Victoria MacCallum