Why we charge for this
Most of what you will read about parental orders is free. Our own guide is free. So it is a fair question why any part of this costs money — and a fair expectation that the answer is a straight one rather than a sales page.
What the fee actually pays for
PO Navigator is not an article about parental orders. It is a working tool. It takes you through the C51 application and its supporting forms question by question, in your own words rather than the court's. It tracks your dates against the six-month deadline that runs from your child's birth. And it assembles the court bundle in the order the court expects to receive it, so that what lands in front of a judge is complete.
Building that took time. Keeping it correct takes more.
That second part is the larger half of the cost, and the part nobody sees. Surrogacy law and court practice do not sit still. Forms are revised. Guidance is updated. The Law Commission's reform work continues in the background, and the position in individual countries abroad changes with little notice. Every time something moves, someone has to read it properly, work out what it means for a family who is already halfway through an application, and change the product accordingly. That is continuous work, and it is what your fee buys: not a document that was accurate once, but guidance that is maintained.
The fee also covers the e-bundle tooling and support when you get stuck on a question and need a human to point you at the right part of the process. (Our separate e-bundle review service — where we go through your finished bundle before you file it — is priced on its own; you are not paying for it here.)
About the £6,000 to £12,000
PO Navigator, one-off
A specialist solicitor handling the application — a range, because cases differ
A specialist solicitor handling a parental order application typically costs somewhere between £6,000 and £12,000. We mention that comparison a lot, and we want to be careful about how we mean it.
That is not an inflated price. It is what a skilled professional's time costs, and specialist fertility solicitors do genuinely difficult work. For some families, it is exactly the right money to spend.
If any of the following describes your situation, please talk to one:
- payments to your surrogate that went beyond reasonable expenses, or that you are not sure how to characterise
- a surrogate who has not given consent, cannot be found, or has changed her mind
- questions about domicile, or about whether you meet the Section 54 criteria at all
- an international arrangement with complications — immigration, nationality, or a country whose legal position is unsettled
- a case anyone has suggested may be contested
- a six-month deadline that has already passed
We would genuinely rather you spent your money on a solicitor than on us.
For most families, though, none of that applies. The case is straightforward, everyone consents, the criteria are met, and what stands between you and the order is a stack of paperwork that has to be right. It is paperwork, not legal argument. That is the situation PO Navigator is built for, and paying several thousand pounds to have someone else fill in forms you are perfectly capable of filling in yourselves is a choice, not a requirement.
What stays free, and why
The comprehensive guide at /guide is free. The two-minute suitability check at /check is free. The C51 basics and the deadline calculator are free.
They stay free because no family should have to pay to find out whether they qualify, or when their deadline falls. The worst outcome in all of this is a family who misses the six-month window because nobody told them it existed — and that is a failure we are not willing to charge admission to prevent.
The suitability check will also, sometimes, tell you that we are not the right fit for your situation. That is the point of it. We would rather find that out in two minutes than after you have paid.
The price, plainly
Journey Pass — one-off, twelve months' access
Per month — cancel whenever you like
Money-back guarantee on every purchase
The honest arithmetic: if you expect to be at this for the better part of a year, the one-off is the cheaper of the two. The monthly option exists for people who would rather not commit £299 up front, or who are joining us late in the process and only need a few months.
Every purchase carries a 14-day money-back guarantee. Look through the whole thing properly, and if it is not what you need, ask for your money back within those 14 days.
One thing we cannot do
PO Navigator gives guidance, not legal advice. We are not your solicitor, we do not represent you, and we cannot promise you what a court will do. What we can do is make sure that what you put in front of the court is complete, in the right order, and filed in time — which, when all goes to plan, is what stands between a family and a single hearing at their local family court.
If that is the help you need, we think £299 is a fair price for it. If it is not, the free guide is yours anyway.
Not sure yet? Check first.
The free two-minute check walks through your deadline, consent, genetics, payments and domicile, and tells you plainly whether this is something you can manage yourselves — or whether you need a specialist.
Take the free 2-minute checkNo email required · No pressure