Crime Fees​

As a law firm that is fully regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, MTG Solicitors has a legal duty to be completely transparent regarding its fees.  This duty is in line with our firm’s values, which is to be honest and transparent with our clients at all times.

Free 30 minute consultation

We begin every new client relationship by offering a free 30-minute consultation.  During this time, we find out about your legal matter and quickly establish whether we are the right firm to help you.  This is also the time when we discuss whether you may qualify for legal aid.

Our free consultation is designed to ensure you understand our processes and we have the opportunity to provide you with an estimate of how much our services will cost.  You will receive this information in a Client Care package which will be sent to you if you wish to instruct us.

Can I get legal aid?

You may be entitled to receive legal aid to pay your legal fees.

To determine whether someone qualifies for criminal legal aid you need to consider both

1. Merits – the interests of justice test (IoJ)
2. Means – financial eligibility

Merits: interests of justice (IoJ) consders the merits of the case – for example, a person’s previous convictions, nature of the offence and the risk of custody – to determine if an applicant qualifies for legal aid. The more serious the charge or possible consequences for a defendant, the more likely that their case will qualify for legal aid (Crown Court trials are deemed to automatically satisfy this test).

Widgery criteria

The interests of justice test determines whether a client is entitled to legal aid based on merits. As part of the test you must consider the ‘Widgery critera’ and decide which of the following applies to your case:

• it’s likely I’ll lose my liberty
• I’ve been given a sentence that’s suspended or non-custodial: if I break this, the court may be able to deal with me for the original offence
• it’s likely that I’ll lose my livelihood
• it’s likely that I’ll suffer serious damage to my reputation
• a substantial question of law may be involved
• I may not be able to understand the court proceedings or present my own case
• I may need witnesses to be traced or interviewed on my behalf
• the proceedings may involve expert cross-examination of a prosecution witness
• it’s in the interests of another person that I’m represented
• any other reasons

Means

In addition to passing the interest of justice test, to get legal aid a defendant must be financially eligible to qualify for legal aid as set out in The Criminal Legal Aid (Financial Resources) Regulations 2013.

Means testing considers a defendant’s financial position based on:

• household income
• outgoings
• capital and equity

Passporting

Applicants will passport the means test to automatically get free legal aid if they’re under 18 or receive:

• Income Support (IS)
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• Universal Credit (UC)
• State Pension Guarantee Credit
• income-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

They must also pass the IoJ test. As shown above some applicants will automatically pass this.

Financial eligibility calculator for criminal legal aid (XLSM, 82.5KB)

You can click on the above calculator to quickly check if you are likely to pass the means test. The calculator may be particularly useful if you’re trying to estimate eligibility for more complex means cases or to estimate contribution levels in the Crown Court.

Our free consultation includes assess for you if you qualify for legal aid or not

If you do not qualify for legal aid wherever possible, our Criminal Law lawyers work on a fixed fee basis.  This means that we calculate how much advising and representing you on your matter will cost and provide you with a quote.  The quoted amount for the work listed will not vary.  If additional work needs to be carried out we will send you a new quote for the additional work.  You will never receive any ‘unexpected’ charges on any of our invoices.

If you do not qualify for legal aid or if you wish to instruct us privately on a matter then please contact us to discuss fee. We accept private instructions for Police Station, Magistrates and Crown Court work.

Motoring Offences

Where you wish to instruct privately for a Motoring offence our cost is as following-

1. Where you have received letter from Court requesting you to formally respond and confirm your plea in writing to a driving offence charge our fee which will include attending you, perusing the papers, taking instructions, advising you and completing the form the fixed fee is £150 + VAT, ordinarily it can take 1 hour to complete but if more time is required then additional fee is not charged, this work is carried out by Qualified Crime Solicitors only;
2. Where you have received postal requisition/ been charged with a driving offence and required to attend Court in person our fee which will include attending you, perusing the papers, taking instructions, advising you, requesting the evidence from CPS, attending the Court hearing and representing you at Magistrates Court where you wish to enter a Guilty plea our fixed fee is £600 + VAT + travelling expenses, if your matter does not conclude on the same day and the matter is adjourned for example for a pre-sentence report then our fixed fee for additional 2nd hearing is £300 + VAT + travelling expenses- this fee is fixed fee and does not limit the number of hours at may take at Court, this work is carried out by Qualified Crime Solicitors only;
3. Where you have received postal requisition/ been charged with a driving offence and required to attend Court in person our fee which will include attending you, perusing the papers, taking instructions, advising you, requesting the evidence from CPS, attending the Court hearing and representing you at Magistrates Court where you wish to enter a Not Guilty plea our fixed fee is £500 + VAT + travelling expenses, the matter following the not Guilty plea is adjourned for a trial on a date in future, preparation includes attending you in office and taking detailed instructions (proof of evidence), instructing a specialist Barrister, liaising with CPS, Court, attending defence witnesses where required, complying with Court directions the fixed fee which also includes representation at Magistrates Court is £1500 + VAT + travelling expenses, if your matter does not conclude on the same day and the matter is adjourned for example for a pre-sentence report then our fixed fee for additional hearing is £300 + VAT + travelling expenses- this fee is fixed fee and does not limit the number of hours at may take at Court, representation at Court is provided by qualified Solicitor or Barrister, preparation may be done by a suitably qualified Paralegal or a Trainee Solicitor.

Please note that the above fee does not include disbursements such as fee of an expert for them to prepare a reports such as blood alcohol concentration report, Expert report for, examination or analysis, drink driving, laced / spiked alcohol, failure to provide reports etc