Price transparency pages: what a usable one contains
A price page a client can use answers four things: what the work costs, what is included, what is extra, and when payment falls due. A range without those four is a number nobody can act on. The transparency rules have asked for this information since 6 December 2018.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
What does a client actually do with a price page?
Three things, none of which is reading it.
They budget — they are working out whether this is a four-figure or a five-figure decision, and a range that spans both has not helped. They compare — usually two or three firms, in tabs, on a phone, in about ten minutes. And they brace — they are trying to find out what the number does not include, because everybody has been caught by that once.
A page written for the file answers none of those. A page written for the client answers all three and, as a by-product, is the page the firm was expected to publish anyway. The rules argument for doing it sits on what the SRA transparency rules require on a website; this page is about the document itself.
What does a range need beside it to be meaningful?
Six things. A range with none of them is a number the reader has to interpret, and they will interpret it badly.
| Beside the range | What the reader is asking | What happens without it |
|---|---|---|
| What puts a matter at the bottom, and what puts it at the top | "Which am I?" | They assume the top of the range, or assume the bottom and feel misled later |
| What is included in the fee | "What am I buying?" | Every later invoice reads as a surprise |
| Which disbursements attach, and how much | "What else is there?" | The first complaint usually starts here |
| Whether VAT is included or added | "Is that the number?" | A fifth of the figure is in dispute before the matter starts |
| When payment falls due | "When do I need this money?" | The reader who cannot pay it all today rings nobody |
| What happens if the matter ends early | "What if this stops?" | The reader who is not sure they will go through with it does not start |
The first row is the one firms leave out and the one that does most of the work. A range without drivers is a shrug. A range with two sentences saying what moves a matter up it — a contested element, an unusual title, an extra party — turns the same two numbers into something a reader can place themselves inside.
A damaging admission: we do not set any of these figures and we will not invent a range. If a firm cannot state a basis for a service, the page cannot honestly be written, and the answer is a conversation inside the firm rather than a page from us.
Which words should come off the page?
The ones that are true in the file and meaningless on a screen.
- Unglossed trade terms. Disbursement is not a word clients use. Keep it if the firm prefers it, and gloss it in the same sentence the first time: what the firm pays out to somebody else on the client's behalf.
- Placeholder pricing. A figure to be confirmed, or a price on application, tells a comparing reader that this firm is the one that would not answer.
- Latin, and near-Latin. If a phrase needs a footnote, the footnote is the sentence.
- Hedges stacked on hedges. "Typically, in most cases, approximately" is three defences around one number and reads as a lack of confidence in it.
- The firm's own history in the first screen. A founding date is not an answer to any of the three things a reader came to do.
The test is short: read the page to somebody who has never instructed a solicitor and ask them what it costs. If they cannot say a number and a condition, the page has not answered.
What order does a fee page run in?
Answer, then conditions, then people, then the route out.
| Position | What sits here | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The service, named the way a client names it | So the reader knows they are on the right page |
| 2 | The fee or range, and the basis it is charged on | The thing they came for, above the first scroll |
| 3 | What moves a matter up the range | Turns two numbers into a placement |
| 4 | What is included, and what is a disbursement, with amounts | Where the first complaint starts |
| 5 | VAT, plainly | A fifth of the figure |
| 6 | Stages and rough timings, and when payment falls due | What next month looks like |
| 7 | Who does the work, named, with qualifications and supervision | Attaches the number to a person |
| 8 | The questions people actually ask | The section an answer engine lifts |
| 9 | The complaints route, plainly labelled | Covered on complaints information and the SRA digital badge |
The order of a whole practice-area page, as opposed to the fee section inside it, is set out on solicitor website design.
How does a page like this behave in search?
Well, for an unglamorous reason: it is a direct answer to a question, and most of the market answers it with silence.
AI Overviews appear on 39 of 54 money searches in the set measured on 3 August 2026, and on 863 of the 1,235 keywords across the whole set. A page whose cost answer is in paragraph nine gets summarised without it. A page whose answer is in the first forty words gets summarised with it, and quoted.
One number worth fencing carefully. Among the 40 legal-marketing suppliers we read on 3 August 2026, 15 of the 62 recorded buyer questions were price questions — the largest single group. Those are buyers of marketing services, not buyers of legal services, so it is not evidence about a firm's own clients. It is a reminder from an adjacent market that the most-asked question is usually the least-answered one, and that 12 of those 40 published a price at all.
For scale on what the underlying demand is worth: family and divorce work in Liverpool runs 1,200 searches a month at £38.60 a click, measured 3 August 2026. A hundred of those clicks is £3,860 at Google's own prices — arithmetic on a click price, not a forecast.
What does the work cost, and what will it not do?
Published and fixed, quoted before anybody speaks to you.
| Product | Price |
|---|---|
| Price Transparency Pack | £890, ten working days |
| Firm Site | £2,400 |
| Firm Site+ | £4,200 |
| Authority Build | £6,900 |
| Retainer, monthly | £600 · £1,200 · £2,400, no minimum term |
£700 comes off a build taken with six months of retainer. Nothing is priced per enquiry, per matter or per client — LASPO 2012 section 56 prohibits referral fees in prescribed legal business and binds the paying firm as well as the party paid.
What a good fee page will not do: it will not decide the firm's pricing, it will not make a weak range look strong, and it will not put the firm in a position to say it complies. It presents figures the firm has approved, in an order a stranger can follow.
Whether your own site meets this
The check takes about two minutes and lists which of the items above are absent from your fee pages, from your own answers. It is not a compliance assessment — that judgement belongs to the firm and its COLP — and it is free either way.
If you want the pages built rather than listed, the Price Transparency Pack is £890 and takes ten working days.
Where should I read next?
On the rule behind the page, and what "published" means for a web page: what the SRA transparency rules require on a website. On which services need one of these pages at all: which of your services the price publication rules cover.
Further out: marketing to solicitors, law firm marketing services, law firm SEO marketing, law firm marketing website and small law firm marketing.
Frequently asked questions
What does a price page need beside the range?
Six things: what moves a matter up the range, what is included, which disbursements attach and how much, whether VAT is included, when payment falls due, and what happens if the matter ends early. A range without them is a number the reader has to interpret.
Is a range acceptable, or does it have to be a single figure?
A range is fine when the drivers are stated. Two sentences saying what moves a matter to the top of it — a contested element, an unusual title, an extra party — let a reader place themselves inside the range rather than guess.
Where should the fee sit on the page?
Above the first scroll, immediately after the service is named in the client's own words. AI Overviews appeared on 39 of 54 money searches measured on 3 August 2026, and a cost answer in paragraph nine gets summarised without it.
What should come off a fee page?
Unglossed trade terms, placeholder pricing such as a figure to be confirmed, Latin, hedges stacked on hedges, and the firm's history in the first screen. A comparing reader treats an unanswered price as an answer.
Do you write the prices?
No. We do not set figures and will not invent a range. If a firm cannot state a basis for a service, the page cannot honestly be written, and that is a conversation inside the firm rather than a page from us.
Does a good fee page make a firm compliant?
No. Whether a firm meets its obligations is a judgement for the firm and its COLP. A page presents figures the firm has approved, in an order a stranger can follow.
What does the Price Transparency Pack cost?
£890, fixed and published, in ten working days on an existing site. Builds are £2,400, £4,200 and £6,900, and retainers are £600, £1,200 or £2,400 a month with no minimum term.