Family Law – Legal Fees

Our firm is well aware that one of the great concerns that many people have when embarking on resolving their family law issues are the legal fees that are likely to be incurred.

Each matter is unique in the work that is required to bring a successful resolution to the parties.

At Big Law we endeavour to keep our fees to the least reasonably possible.

Our firm has a strong philosophy of appropriate remuneration and we made a decision many years ago not to time cost our files as we believe that time costing in this area can lead to inefficiencies and inappropriate fees to clients.

Our Fees are based on a modification of the Family Law Scale under The Family Law Act. The Family Law Scale is regarded as the minimum base line for legal costs in this area of Law. Our fees are based on a slight increase of the items in the Family Law Scale which reflects our higher expertise and attention to clients.

Clients are provided with a copy our Cost Agreement prior to our commencing their work so that they have the opportunity to consider it and ask any questions. We usually charge for outcomes in the preparation of documents and not the time with which it takes to prepare various materials. This is fairer to our Clients.

We also have our files independently costed by Graham & Bull, at no cost to our client. Michael Graham is a solicitor who has undertaken costings work for a number of firms in the South East Queensland area and is accredited by the Supreme Court of Queensland as a Costs Assessor. Michael will examine the file and charges in accordance with the Agreement which has been reached with our client.

By not time costing and by having our files independently assessed, we consider that our clients can be reassured that their fees are appropriate and if there is a concern with fees then clients are able to discuss those fees with either our firm or with the independent Assessor who has assessed the account.

These safeguards have resulted in our firm having very few, if any, disputes as to our accounts when they are rendered.