Retainer and Outline of Costs
Prior to continuing on this site, we confirm receipt of your request to act in your criminal law matter. We will act in your best interest in accordance with your instructions however; we will not do anything unethical or illegal under any circumstances.
Your obligations
Prior to entering into this Retainer, you must agree to obey the following conditions:
- provide full and honest instructions relevant to your matter and any material change in your circumstances that might impact on your matter while we continue to act for you;
- co-operate in the matter and do all that we reasonably request of you in a timely manner;
- accept our reasonable legal advice prior to providing or confirming instructions; and
- provide funds in advance in accordance with this Agreement or some later arrangement.
If you fail to comply with any of these conditions, we have the option to terminate this retainer by advising you of termination in writing.
Acceptance
Prior to acceptance, you are entitled to negotiate any terms. If you do not sign the agreement, you will not be permitted to proceed with your matter on this site.
If you sign the document, you have accepted this retainer. You will be bound by the terms and conditions set out in the document, including billing practices. You may accept this offer by signing or entering any mark into the signature box below and clicking accept and submit.
Should you proceed and request our firm to undertake work in absence of a proper signature, your conduct will be taken as acceptance to the offer and costs will be charge in accordance with the retainer. Your continued use of the site and request for work will also be taken as acceptance. Instructions include any requests for our firm to do something for you, either by mail, phone, in person or otherwise.
Failure to mark or sign the box and proceed within 14 days can result in the immediate withdrawal of our offer to act for you and you will lose your access to the site under the new membership.
If there remains anything you do not understand, please use the help icon on the top left to message our staff directly. You should obtain independent legal advice in relation to the retainer prior to agreeing to it. A signed copy will be available to you at all times on the home page for review.
Estimate of legal costs
Based on the initial information, we will attempt to provide an estimate for engaging our firm in your matter. The estimate is based on the work you initially request and can change in response to any further instructions submitted.
The estimate will outline the anticipated work and require your signature prior to making the payment. The retainer will show the how our costs and any disbursements will be calculated, an overall estimate payable, or a range of estimates based on your instructions and options available, a due date for payment, interest payable if the minimum payment is not made and the representative of our firm who you should direct all cost enquiries to in the future.
A payment can be made in part (the minimum fee required) or in full. Please note, if you decide to pay in part, then the remainder is due and payable immediately upon request by our firm once initial funds are exhausted. Should you fail to make a further payment within 48 hours of our request for further funds, all work will cease on your file and you will receive notice of an intention to terminate.
The estimate provided is only concerning costs charged by our firm. Any disbursements by third parties will be in addition to our fees and payable by you prior to confirming any further instructions to involve professionals external the firm.
We require $.... , inclusive of GST, to be deposited into our trust account for future costs and disbursements within 7 working days of opening your file. Should you wish to pay by way of instalment, we require a minimum amount of $.... by the above date.
If you fail to make the requested payment within the 7 business days, we can terminate the retainer and close your account on our system
The estimate of legal fees under this retainer, if provided, is based on information available at the time of engagement as is not a definitive quote. We are not bound by the initial estimate which is based on our current understanding of the present circumstances of your matter.
It is improbable to anticipate all the work that may be required to be done, and it may be necessary to give revised estimates of cost from time to time should your matter change or your request review or further work.
Our trust account details are as follows;
This information is available in your Accounts tab for the duration of your matter which will also outline our initial estimate and any updates or variations.
Good and Services Tax (‘GST’)
You are liable for the GST in respect of any goods or services supplied to you by our firm or supplied directly to our firm on your behalf. ‘GST’ has the meaning given in the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (Cth).
Calculation of fees
Our employees who work on your matter will record and charge the time spent on your file in accordance with the following scale;
Management - $550 per hour plus GST
Senior Solicitor/Associate - $450 per hour plus GST
Solicitor - $350 per hour plus GST
Paralegal - $250 per hour plus GST
We work towards the efficient resolution of matters by assigning one staff member to take carriage of your matter. However, should the work require supervision which can occur at the discretion of the firm due to the complexity of the matter or experience of staff members, you will be charged accordingly.
The scale is calculated by applying the hourly rates to the units of time recorded on your file. Staff time is recorded in 6 minute increments despite the time afforded to the matter. For clarity, a telephone call for anywhere between 1 – 5 minutes and 59 seconds will be charged one unit whereas any time between 6 – 11 minutes and 59 seconds will be 2 units.
Billable services include all telephone conversations, correspondence, conferences, filing, research, considering, drafting, amending, reviewing, settling, perusing, and attending Court or any place necessary for your matter (including preparatory work, waiting time and travel time).
Management reserves the right and discretion to review and adjust legal fees. You will be notified regarding any such adjustments before they take effect. If an adjustment is made, the retainer will be varied unless you terminate the retainer within 14 days notice in writing.
The Law Institute of Victoria periodically makes determinations for Practitioner Remuneration Orders regarding legal costs. In the absence of an agreement, the fee scales are the basis for solicitors to charge fees and disbursements. Other law firms may be prepared to charge on the basis of fee scales. Please visit the Law Institute of Victoria Website to access the scale.
By accepting and signing this retainer, you will be agreeing to a different scale for charges. The basis of charges will be dependent on actual time spent rather than different activities provided by the fee scale. You will be charged for work done to progress your matter at the hourly rate specified above. We confirm our overall estimate of legal fees (without disbursements) for your instructions should be approximately $......
In contrast to the fee scale, we would still expect to be charging you approximately 75% of the legal fees requested in the retainer. Disbursements would also be set by the scale and likely to be lower than our estimated charge for any additional work.
If you are successful in litigation, you may be able to seek a cost order against another party. Any costs recovered through the Court would be limited to the relevant scale and within the Court’s discretion regarding how much of your fees are reimbursed. Hence, the maximum amount claimable is approximately 75% of your legal fees paid in accordance with this retainer. Any balance will be recoverable. Alternatively, you may be Court ordered to pay the cost of the successful party in addition to your legal costs payable under this retainer. The current fee scale can be downloaded at the Law Institute of Victoria website, as follows http://www.liv.asn.au/Practice-Resources/Costing/Statutory-Scales-of-Costs.
You will incur charges for the time spent working on your file at the rate specified above.
Your rights regarding the estimate of costs
We encourage you to seek independent legal advice prior to signing this agreement as the laws of Victoria applies to your legal costs.
Any requests to renegotiate the terms of this agreement, must be made to our firm in writing prior to signing, and will only come into effect if accepted by our firm and varied and initialled by both parties prior to signing.
We will provide you invoices requesting payment within 30 days and, upon request, we can provide an itemised bill, as long as the request is made at least one week prior to the due date for payment.
We will also provide you updates regarding the progress of your matter and costs incurred to date upon request. Notwithstanding this, you will be notified immediately of any significant changes affecting the cost estimate. External factors, such as actions by another party, actions by you or the Court, may affect our calculations and estimate for legal fees.
If you are unhappy with the costs, you can contact the Legal Services Board and Commissioner if a dispute arises. Prior to this, we ask that you discuss any concerns with the firm so that we are able to arrange for mediation, an independent assessment of our costs or set aside the agreement.
You recommend being prepared to personally bear the full extent of your legal fees. Any order by a Court for payment of costs and disbursements of another party or payment to you will not necessarily cover the entire cost of your legal fees and disbursements.
The Legal Professional Uniform Law (Victoria) 2014 requires our firm to set out the below terms prior to engaging our firm. You can accept the retainer by signing the form once read carefully and considered or you can contact our firm if you wish to negotiate any of the terms.
Disbursements
To progress your file, it might be necessary to incur disbursements, being costs external to our firm, such as Court filing fees, mailing and courier fees, Counsel fees, searching of government databases, process server fees, etc. You are personally liable for payment of these expenses when they are due for payment. We may also request you to provide our firm the payment of the disbursement in advance of our firm incurring the expense. The funds will be held in our trust account, on your behalf, until the payment of the disbursement is due.
Upon receipt of your instructions, we will provide you notice of any substantial expense and await your permission prior to engaging an external service.
Billing Schedule
We will provide interim accounts each fortnight and ask for payment within 14 days of issuing the invoice. Invoices will be posted to your Accounts tab and a notification will be sent.
Our firm is entitled to apply any monies held in our trust account on your behalf to payment of your account in furtherance of the agreement.
If there are insufficient monies in our trust account on your behalf to pay the invoice and you do not attend to the requested payment within the 14 days, we may terminate the retainer and revoke your access to the site.
Notwithstanding this, if you fail to pay the full amount of any of our invoices more than 30 days of the due date, we may charge interest in the amount outstanding, at a rate under the Legal Profession Uniform Law on any amounts unpaid.
You may view an itemised bill of costs within your Accounts tab at all times. Within 12 months of receiving a bill, you can apply to the Court for an Assessment of Costs, even if you have paid all or some of the costs.
You can contact our Accounts team via the tab at any time to obtain an explanation regarding costs or any concerns regarding the payment arrangement provided above.
Trust Money
All monies received by FIRM NAME will be deposited into the general trust account operated by FIRM in Victoria.
We confirm that the trust account is subject to supervision by the Legal Institute of Victoria and is maintained in accordance with the Uniform Law and Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015, effective at the time of deposit. Any claim for defalcation will be made in and under the rules of Victoria.
You authorise FIRM NAME to transfer any held monies from our trust account to our business account any monies relating to professional fees, statutory charges and any other costs incurred on your file on your behalf.
Once work is completed or following termination of services, FIRM NAME will archive your file for 7 years, and you authorise our office to destroy your electronic records after this time. You acknowledge that your documents may be held at an offsite electronic secure facility for this period.
At any time prior to the expiration of the 7 year period, you may request a copy of any documents you provided to our firm. However, you will not be entitled to any personal information or intellectual property which remains the sole property of FIRM NAME.
You may provide use written notice and consent to destroy your file once your matter is finalised.
Please note, if you do not pay your outstanding bill, we reserve the right to exercise a common law right known as a ‘solicitor’s lien’ which allows us to retain your documents until our bill is paid.
Your right to a bill outlining costs
The Legal Profession Uniform Law states that a legal practitioner cannot take legal action for recovery of legal costs until 30 days after a bill of costs has been provided to you, as the person charged with their payment.
At the expiry of 30 days after a bill of costs is provided to you, interest, at the rate specified in the Legal Profession Uniform may be charged on any amounts unpaid.
Your right to fair and reasonable costs
The Legal Professional Uniform Law gives you the right to have the costs charged by our firm assessed by an assessor appointed by the Supreme Court for fairness and to determine if they are proportionately and reasonably incurred, and are reasonable in amount.
Interest Charged
We reserve the right to charge interest on all outstanding legal costs for more than 30 days. The interest is calculated on the outstanding balance from the bill being issued, on a monthly basis, at the rate of 2% above the Cash Rate Target fixed by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Briefing Counsel or other experts
If necessary for our firm to engage, on your behalf, the services of a barrister, another legal practitioner, expert, medical practitioner or mental health worker, to provide specialist advice or services, we will consult you first and you will be personally liable for all costs arising from this other party. You may be required to place additional funds into our trust account to cover future costs external to our firm or we will forward you any invoices or bills and request payment.
If a Court awards costs to you or against you
If a Court makes an order requiring another party to pay your legal costs of the proceeding, that order will not affect your personal liability to pay our fees and disbursements under this retainer. Any amount recovered may reduce the amount for which you are liable or be refunded to you if your entire legal costs have been paid prior to reimbursement. Further, if you cannot recover costs from the other party (e.g. such as liquidation and/or bankruptcy), you will still be liable for the payment of your total legal costs.
If a Court makes an order that you pay another party’s legal costs if you lose the case, you will be liable for these costs in addition to the costs and expenses payable to our firm.
Pre-litigation requirement to seek to resolve disputes
Parties to a dispute are required to take reasonable steps to resolve the dispute before commencing proceedings. These steps may include exchange of documents, negotiations and dispute resolution processes. You are liable for any and all costs of compliance with these requirements and it is to be paid by you. If you fail to comply with these requirements, this may be taken into account by the Court when making an order for costs.
Termination of this retainer
Our firm can discontinue work and revoke your access to the site if you fail to pay our bills, if you fail to provide adequate instructions, or if you indicate to us that we have lost your confidence.
FIRM NAME will provide you 7 days notice of our intention to terminate the retainer, and the grounds for the notice. You will be required to pay any outstanding charges for work done, and for expenses incurred, up to the date of the termination.
You can terminate this agreement in writing at any time. If you do, you will be required to pay any charges and expenses incurred until the date of termination. Depending on circumstances, we may be entitled to exercise our right to a solicitor’s lien by retaining documents relating to any matters we are conducting on your behalf.
Action to recover legal costs
In the event that we are required to initiate proceedings for unpaid legal costs in any Court seeking recovery of the same, you agree you will be liable for all FIRM NAME’s costs in doing so on an indemnity basis. This means ALL time spent in preparing and prosecuting such proceedings, and all disbursements, will be paid by you.
Electronic communication
We confirm that our site is protected and secure. However, we can communicate electronically with you and other parties, via email and messaging services. As we communicate electronically with you and for you, you acknowledge and agree as follows;
- There are some delivery risks in using electronic mail and you accept the risk of interception of the email by third parties or of non-receipt of delay receipt of the message; and
- Computer viruses and similar damaging items can be transmitted through emails and by introducing computer disks into your system. FIRM NAME use virus-scanning software to reduce the risks and ask you to do the same. However, we cannot guarantee the complete elimination of risks.
When we communicate electronically with you or for you, you release FIRM NAME from all claims, losses, expenses and liabilities causes by any of the risks referred to above and arising directly or indirectly from the communications.
Contact responsible for your file
If you have any concerns about costs or the progression of your file, please contact the legal practitioner with carriage of your matter and responsible for your work. Alternatively, you may contact Ms Amran Azad.
Security for costs
Before we commence work on the matter, you may be required to provide us with security for our legal costs and the payment of any interest on unpaid legal costs. If you fail to provide this security, we may refuse or cease to act.
Copyright
All documents prepared by FIRM NAME remain our intellectual property and are protected by copyright. You cannot download or reproduce them without prior written consent of our firm and any attempt to do so can result in the immediate termination of this retainer as the site will alert our staff of any such attempt.
Privacy
You authorise our office to store and use personal information obtained from you. This includes providing information to other entities to the extent necessary for us to undertake the legal work.
All communications, developments and information will be available on our site. Please contact our firm if you have any doubts about emails or other communications which appear to come from our firm external to the site.
Effective date
This retainer is effective from the date you sign the document and applied to all future work undertaken.
Entire Agreement
This retainer constitutes the sole and entire costs agreement between you and FIRM NAME. To take legal effect, any variations to the terms of the agreement must be in writing and signed by you and our firm.
Execution of Retainer
I have read and accept the terms of the retainer. I understand its contents in full and, where necessary, I have clarified the matter with FIRM NAME and/or exercised my right to seek independent legal advice.
I direct any money received on my behalf by FIRM NAME to be banked in the general trust account operated by FIRM NAME in Victoria.
I acknowledge that the trust account is subject to the supervision of Legal Institute of Victoria and maintained in accordance with the Legal Professional Act, effective at the time of the deposit. I acknowledge that if any claim for defalcation is made, it will be made in and under the rules of Victoria.
Dated the ………….. day of …………………….. 20
…………………………………….
CLIENT’S NAME