If you want to consult a lawyer you should figure out how much you want to spend first, and then get some idea of what it is going to cost you. In Australia, if your legal costs are going to be more than $750, lawyers are required to provide you with a costs agreement setting out how they calculate their fees. Some State or Territory law societies or law institutes (professional representative bodies for lawyers) have examples of standard costs agreements on their websites.
If you don’t understand the costs agreement you need to ask for it to be explained to you. Essentially, it is a bit like a mortgage document. A mortgage contract will usually allow the financier to recover from you the amount borrowed, put interest, costs and charges and any additional costs incurred in chasing you for payments or foreclosing on your house. If you have other accounts with the financier, they can usually access those accounts to recover funds too. What a legal costs agreement does is sets out the hourly rates that you will be charged for the different people working on your matter and any additional costs incurred by the firm (like search fees, cab charges, barristers fees etc). See How do lawyers work out their charges? You should be provided with a broad estimate for the work that you are seeking with a catch-all phrase that says the estimate is not binding and subject to change based upon any changes in instructions that you give to your lawyer.
Since most people who consult a lawyer do not have a clear idea of the legal work that they require, the estimate is likely to change and you will be required to pay whatever it is you are charged.
A copy of a legal costs agreement should be provided to you as soon after you consult a lawyer as possible. If you have time, it is advisable to ask to see a copy of the firm’s legal costs agreement prior to seeking their advice. This is not always possible.
Legal invoices usually set out a description of the work that has been done with a total amount for the time spent completing that work. Firms rarely identify the individuals completing the work, the hours they have put in doing particular tasks and the corresponding costs, although you are entitled to request those details.
In the event that there is a dispute over fees you should raise the dispute within 30 days of receipt of the invoice and confirm your query in writing. If a dispute over fees escalates to review by the legal services commission it will drag on over months and the firm will have their basis for charging closely reviewed. Legal firms are businesses and will generally prefer to negotiate a settlement, provided it is reasonable, rather than allow a matter to escalate. In any review by a legal services commissioner, the basis for the review will be what costs are reasonable in the circumstances. As you can imagine, ‘reasonable’ is a flexible concept and may depend upon the complexity of the matter and the way in which it has been handled. See How do lawyers work out their charges?
To find out more go to http://www.legaleasy.com.au/
30 December 2008
Why do legal fees cost so much?
Lawyers charge for the amount of time that they spend working on your matter or communicating with you. Establish a system at the beginning of your relationship so that you know when to expect to hear from your lawyer and wait for them to get back to you rather than calling or emailing every day.
No two legal matters are exactly alike so you pay for the time it takes your lawyer to customise everything to suit you. They might start with useful precedents, but they will still have to consider every word against the outcome that you want to achieve.
The law is vast. There are thousands of Commonwealth laws and thousands of laws enacted by each state and territory as well as unwritten law known as ‘common law’. No one lawyer can be expected to know the details of every law, or the details of the hundreds of thousands of court cases which tell lawyers how the courts interpret those laws. Lawyers need time to work out what is best for you and you pay for that time. See How do lawyers work out their charges?.
A lot of people don’t appreciate how much time is involved in preparing legal letters or documents. In preparing documents lawyers need to consider the short and long term strategies of your matter and how the document they prepare could be interpreted by someone else. There are very few absolutes in law. It is not black and white and is open to interpretation, so there may be times when your lawyer agonises over whether or not to use particular words simply because of the way they think the court or another party might react. Consider how long it would take you to write the script of a television show and what you would need to know about the theme and the characters before you could.
Time is money and it takes time to tailor legal advice specifically for you.
To find out more go to http://www.legaleasy.com.au/
No two legal matters are exactly alike so you pay for the time it takes your lawyer to customise everything to suit you. They might start with useful precedents, but they will still have to consider every word against the outcome that you want to achieve.
The law is vast. There are thousands of Commonwealth laws and thousands of laws enacted by each state and territory as well as unwritten law known as ‘common law’. No one lawyer can be expected to know the details of every law, or the details of the hundreds of thousands of court cases which tell lawyers how the courts interpret those laws. Lawyers need time to work out what is best for you and you pay for that time. See How do lawyers work out their charges?.
A lot of people don’t appreciate how much time is involved in preparing legal letters or documents. In preparing documents lawyers need to consider the short and long term strategies of your matter and how the document they prepare could be interpreted by someone else. There are very few absolutes in law. It is not black and white and is open to interpretation, so there may be times when your lawyer agonises over whether or not to use particular words simply because of the way they think the court or another party might react. Consider how long it would take you to write the script of a television show and what you would need to know about the theme and the characters before you could.
Time is money and it takes time to tailor legal advice specifically for you.
To find out more go to http://www.legaleasy.com.au/
How do lawyers work out their charges?
Currently in Australia the most popular method for costing legal matters is to charge the client per 6 minute unit. You will usually be notified of the hourly rate charged by your lawyer, representing 10 x 6 minute units. Rates will differ depending on the years of experience or expertise of each lawyer.
Activities which take less than 6 minutes, say a short phone call confirming an appointment which takes about 2 minutes, will usually be recorded and charged to you at 6 minutes; activities that fall within a 6 minute unit, say 20 minutes, will be charged at the rate for a complete 6 minute unit, so for 20 minutes you will be charged 4 units.
Legal firms tend to charge you for everything, even a call to say hello and talk about the weather is likely to be charged to you. If you call or email your lawyer every other day to check up on things, you are likely to get a high bill at the end of the month.
Some firms only charge you for the legal work conducted, and not all the additional administrative work that is required, for example: filing, word processing, data entry, sending faxes etc. For those firms, the hourly rate charged to you for the legal work is supposed to be sufficient to cover all the extra administration. Other firms will charge you for an administrator’s time in additional to your lawyer’s time.
Any costs incurred on your behalf, like barristers’ fees, court filing fees, stamp duty etc, are all payable by you. Many firms will also pass on to you the costs of postage, telephone calls and photocopying.
If your matter is going to cost more than $750, lawyers are required by law to provide you with a costs agreement setting out how they calculate their fees. If you don’t understand the costs agreement, see What is a legal costs agreement, ask your lawyer about the details, or speak to the local law society.
To find out more go to http://www.legaleasy.com.au/
Activities which take less than 6 minutes, say a short phone call confirming an appointment which takes about 2 minutes, will usually be recorded and charged to you at 6 minutes; activities that fall within a 6 minute unit, say 20 minutes, will be charged at the rate for a complete 6 minute unit, so for 20 minutes you will be charged 4 units.
Legal firms tend to charge you for everything, even a call to say hello and talk about the weather is likely to be charged to you. If you call or email your lawyer every other day to check up on things, you are likely to get a high bill at the end of the month.
Some firms only charge you for the legal work conducted, and not all the additional administrative work that is required, for example: filing, word processing, data entry, sending faxes etc. For those firms, the hourly rate charged to you for the legal work is supposed to be sufficient to cover all the extra administration. Other firms will charge you for an administrator’s time in additional to your lawyer’s time.
Any costs incurred on your behalf, like barristers’ fees, court filing fees, stamp duty etc, are all payable by you. Many firms will also pass on to you the costs of postage, telephone calls and photocopying.
If your matter is going to cost more than $750, lawyers are required by law to provide you with a costs agreement setting out how they calculate their fees. If you don’t understand the costs agreement, see What is a legal costs agreement, ask your lawyer about the details, or speak to the local law society.
To find out more go to http://www.legaleasy.com.au/
29 June 2008
Sue the bastards!
So you want to sue the bastards? Great, where should you start? Firstly, consider the real reason you want to sue the bastard. Here are a list of really, really bad reasons for suing someone:
- you want to prove them wrong
- you want to prove a point
- you want to be right
- you want justice
- its the principal of the thing!
- you're going to show them!
- they deserve it!
None of these reasons are good reasons for suing someone. Nope, not one! More's the point, if you launch into court proceedings on the basis of one of those reasons, you are bound to be disappointed!
Set yourself a realistic goal. You want to sue the bastard because all other possible avenues for resolving your dispute have failed and you want to:
- recover payment from someone
- clarify the terms of a contract with someone
- make someone comply with the terms of a contract
- prove that a contract exists so that you can enforce it
- stop someone from doing something that is damaging you or your business
- get a court order that compels someone give you back something that belongs to you
- stop someone from removing something from the jurisdiction
It is very hard for some people to separate the people from the problem, or to take the emotion out of the dispute. Focus on what you want to achieve, rather than the bastard you want to sue, and you will have a much more realistic prospective on your proposed court proceeding.
There are a couple of other key points to remember:
- court proceedings will cost you time
- court proceedings will cost you money, even if you win
- be prepared to reach a compromise to end proceedings early
- don't expect to get everything you want
- don't ever think that anyone can predict the way a court will make a decision
- no one can ever guarantee that you will win
- there is no such thing as a 'sure thing'
Once you know what it is you want to achieve and you have worked out that it is worth the time and money to try and achieve that goal, then you're ready to sue the bastards.
And by then, you might have changed your mind!
To find out more go to www.legaleasy.com.au
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