Terms of Service
The terms that govern our paid support services — what we do, what we never do, fees, your cancellation rights and how complaints are handled.
DRAFT — pending review by a qualified solicitor. Not yet in force. These terms are a working draft published for transparency while our paid support services are being prepared. They do not apply to any engagement until this notice is removed.
1. Who we are
Phoenix Family Law is not a firm of solicitors and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We provide administrative support and McKenzie Friend assistance based on lived experience of the family courts. Nobody at Phoenix Family Law is a solicitor, barrister or legal executive, and nothing we provide is legal advice.
Our full trading identity and contact details are set out in the footer of this site and in every engagement letter.
2. What these terms cover
These Terms of Service apply to our paid support tiers — the administrative and McKenzie Friend support services described on our services page and confirmed in your engagement letter. The free guides and tools on this website are covered by our Disclaimer, not by these terms.
3. The scope of our service — what we do and what we never do
Our services are support, not legal services. The boundary below is fundamental to every engagement and cannot be varied, even at your request:
- You remain the litigant in person. Your case stays yours at all times.
- You review, approve, sign and file all documents yourself. We can help you prepare and organise them, but the final content, the signature and the act of filing are always yours.
- We do not provide legal advice. We can explain processes and share general information and lived experience; we cannot advise you on the merits of your case or tell you what you should do.
- We do not represent you and we do not speak for you in court.
- We do not contact the court on your behalf — no letters, emails, calls or filings in your name or ours.
- We do not attend hearings. Unlike a traditional McKenzie Friend, we do not accompany you to hearings.
Why so strict? Only authorised, regulated lawyers may conduct litigation or exercise rights of audience (Legal Services Act 2007). Keeping to this boundary protects you and keeps our support lawful.
4. How an engagement starts
- Enquiry. You contact us with your details — no case detail needed at this stage.
- Fit call. A short, free call to check whether our support suits your situation. If it does not, we will say so and, where we can, signpost free alternatives.
- Engagement letter. If we both want to proceed, we send you a written engagement letter setting out the tier, the exact scope of work, the fixed fee and your cancellation rights. No work starts and nothing is payable until you have accepted it.
- Work begins. Once you accept the engagement letter (and, if you want us to start within your 14-day cancellation period, once you have expressly asked us to — see section 6).
5. Fees
Each support tier has a fixed fee, quoted in full in your engagement letter before you commit. The engagement letter states everything the fee includes, any limits (such as page caps on document review) and what happens if a limit is reached. We do not charge anything that is not set out in the engagement letter, and we never start chargeable work without your agreement.
6. Your right to cancel
When you buy our services at a distance (online, by email or by phone), you have a legal right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 to cancel within 14 days, without giving any reason. Your 14 days run from the day after you accept the engagement letter and end 14 days later.
- If you cancel within the 14-day period and no work has started, you receive a full refund of anything you have paid, within 14 days of your cancellation.
- If you expressly ask us to begin work within the 14-day period and then cancel before the period ends, you pay a proportional charge for the work done up to the point of cancellation, and we refund the rest.
- The right to cancel is lost once the service has been fully performed, but only where you expressly requested that we start within the 14-day period and acknowledged that you would lose the right to cancel once the service was fully performed.
How to cancel, and the statutory model cancellation form, are on our Cancellation & Refunds page.
7. Our commitment to you
We will perform our services with reasonable care and skill, as required by the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Anything we say or write about the service that you rely on when deciding to engage us forms part of the contract. We will carry out the work within the time agreed in your engagement letter or, if none is agreed, within a reasonable time.
8. Liability
Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
Subject to that, our total liability to you arising out of or in connection with an engagement is capped at the total fees paid or payable for that engagement.
Because you remain the litigant in person and every decision in your case is yours, we are not responsible for the outcome of your case, for decisions made by any court, or for the consequences of choices you make about your proceedings. Our support is administrative and practical; it is not a prediction of, or a promise about, any result.
9. Complaints
If you are unhappy with our service, please tell us — we take complaints seriously.
- Write to us using the contact details in your engagement letter or in the site footer, telling us what has gone wrong and what you would like us to do.
- We will acknowledge your complaint promptly and send a full response within 14 days.
- If you are not satisfied with the response, you can ask for your complaint to be escalated to the principal named in your engagement letter, who will review it personally.
We want to be straightforward with you: because Phoenix Family Law is not a firm of solicitors, no ombudsman or statutory complaints scheme (such as the Legal Ombudsman) covers unregulated McKenzie Friend services. Your ordinary consumer rights — including those under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 — are unaffected, and you may seek independent advice, for example from Citizens Advice.
10. Scope: England & Wales only
Our services relate solely to family proceedings in the courts of England and Wales. We do not support proceedings in Scotland, Northern Ireland or any other jurisdiction, where different rules apply.
11. Governing law
These terms and any engagement between us are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.