Legal Assistant/Administrative Assistant
Dear
- Ms Hasler
- Re: COSTS AGREEMENT: Family Provision Claim (WIP BASED – NOT DEFFERRED)
- This letter of engagement, together with our General Terms of Business as attached and/or published on our website, set out the terms of our offer to provide legal services to you pursuant to the Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (NSW) (Unform Law), herein referred to as our Costs
- Agreement
- 1
- Confirmation of Work
- You have instructed us to act on your behalf in respect of your claim against the Estate of the Late
- Peter John Bradley, your father, including: i
- Correspond with the Estate (including Estate’s solicitors) to obtain particulars and attempt settlement negotiations ii
- Draft, advise and negotiate terms of settlement, if any, and attend upon you to execute same iii
- Brief Counsel for advice in relation to prospects and settlement negotiations; if required iv
- If proceedings are commenced, prepare your evidence and Affidavits v
- Advise you as to prospects and potential outcomes of your claim vi
- Attend any Court dates, including mediation, in conjunction with Counsel vii
- Assist in negotiations for settlement viii
- If the matter does not resolve and proceeds to a hearing: 1
- Brief Counsel to appear at the hearing; and 2
- Attend at the hearing with Counsel
- 2 2
- Our professional fees
- Unless otherwise agreed with you, our professional fees will be charged at our hourly rates (excluding GST and disbursements) for the time spent by our team working on your matter
- Our hourly rates will vary in accordance with the level of experience and expertise of our employees and consultants working on the matter along with the nature and complexity of the work involved, and the urgency of the work
- Position Hourly rate (excl
- GST)
- Principal $520 - $720
- Solicitor $350 - $650
- Lawyer / Solicitor (up to 2 yrs experience) $225 – $350
- Paralegal $150 - $250, 130 - $180
- These rates will be proportionately charged for work involving shorter periods of less than an hour
- Our charges are structured in 6-minute units
- For example, the time charged for an attendance of up to 6 minutes will be charged as 1 unit and the time charged for an attendance between 6 and 12 minutes will be charged as 2 units and so on
- Over the course of a lengthy matter our rates may change, and this may impact upon our costs estimate
- We will notify you if our costs estimate changes
- 3
- Disbursements (external)
- We will incur expenses on your behalf, being money we pay or are liable to pay to others on your behalf, which we will ask you to pay as and when they fall due
- Such expenses in the normal course would include, but not be limited to: (i) Court filing fees (ii) Search fees (iii) Process server fees (iv) Expert fees (v) Witness expenses (vi) Transcript expenses (vii) Travel expenses (viii) Barrister’s (that is, Counsel’s) fees
- You will be responsible for paying these disbursements as and when they fall due
- Refer also to clause 3 of our General Terms of Business which deals with our scope of work
- 4
- Disbursements (internal)
- You will be responsible for internal disbursements which we incur in carrying out your instructions
- 3
- Such expenses, in the normal course will include:
- Disbursement
- Cost (excl
- GST)
- File management (incl
- Storage/retrieval/archiving/destruction) – flat fee $75.00
- Photocopying/printing (per page) $0.50
- Colour photocopying/Printing (per page) $1.00
- Facsimiles (per page) $1.00
- Travelling expenses – per kilometre $0.78
- Phone calls – flat fee – payable per annum or part thereof $45.00 5
- Counsel Fees
- If it becomes necessary to brief counsel to progress your matter, you authorise us to brief counsel to appear, confer, advise and draw and/or settle documents on your behalf provided that, wherever practicable, we will provide you with a copy of counsel’s fee agreement
- If you object to the fees of counsel as set out in such a fee agreement, then you shall notify us immediately
- You shall pay all counsel fees which are billed to us
- 6
- Estimate of our Total Professional Fees
- Our estimate of the total cost of the work to be performed under this Costs Agreement is set out below
- It is an estimate, not a fixed quotation, and subject to change
- On our present instructions and on the assumption that the matter does not proceed to Court action, we estimate the cost of the work, inclusive of GST, to be:
- Stage Description of work Estimated
- Professional Fees
- Stage 1 Up to and including early resolution of claim: Taking instructions from you, requesting particulars of the estate, correspond and negotiate settlement and preparation of
- Deed of Settlement reflecting settlement terms
- 6,600.00 inclusive of
- GST
- If the matter does not resolve and proceeds to Court, we estimate our professional fees inclusive of GST will be as follows:- 4
- Stage Description of work Estimated Professional
- Fees
- Stage 2 Up to and including the preparation of your Affidavit:
- Taking instructions from you, advising you regarding your claim, preparing evidence and preparing your affidavit and summons
- 15,000.00 inclusive of GST
- Stage 3 Up to and including mediation: including the work outlined in
- Stage 1 above, all interlocutory steps including appearances at directions hearings, reviewing the defendant’s affidavit material, providing financial disclosure, appearing at mediation
- 33,000.00 inclusive of GST
- Stage 4 Up to and including the first day of hearing: including the work outlined in Stages 1 and 2 above and preparing for hearing
- 55,000.00 inclusive of
- GST
- Note that the amount of the estimated professional fees at each stage includes the amounts listed in the earlier stages
- The figure listed for each stage is not to be added to the figures listed for the earlier stages, but is the total estimated figure up to and including that stage
- Our estimate of costs is made on the information available to us at this time and, in accordance with the provisions of the Uniform Law, we are obliged to provide an estimate of the maximum fee that we anticipate
- This estimate may change when more information becomes available to us
- The most significant factors which will affect the estimate are: (a) your prompt and efficient response to requests for information or instructions; (b) whether your instructions change from the time of initial instructions; (c) the number and duration of telephone calls and other communications; (d) if new facts, circumstances and information come to light that alter the present view we have of the matter; (e) whether documents have to be modified as a result or varied instructions or new facts, circumstances and information; 5 (f) difficulties experienced due to unanticipated problems in obtaining information, evidence (including expert evidence) and the level of cooperation of our opponents; (g) changes in the law; and (h) the complexity or uncertainty concerning legal issues affecting your matter
- 7
- Significant changes to disclosure
- You will be informed, as soon as is reasonably practicable, of any significant changes to anything contained in this Costs Agreement
- 8
- Solicitor/s responsible for the work
- The solicitors principally responsible for assisting you in this matter are:
- Responsible Solicitor – Catherine Henry, Principal
- Acting Solicitor – Jessica Rea, Solicitor
- Our solicitors will be assisted from time to time by other team members within the firm
- You may discuss any issues regarding the performance of the work directly with the Responsible Solicitor
- 9
- Acceptance of Offer
- To accept this offer, please sign and return this document to us
- Please refer to our General Terms of Business that are attached and can also be accessed on our website
- If you have any questions, please contact the Responsible Solicitor at any time
- For and on behalf of