Barton Family Lawyers is one of the only law firms Australia wide that charge fixed fees for ALL their services.
Let us explain to you what fixed fees are and why fixed fees are better.
The Old Way
Most lawyers charge by time in six minute units (10 units per hour).
The amount of fees paid by the client then depends on how many six minute units of work the lawyer does on the client’s behalf, pursuant to the lawyer’s hourly rate.
The disadvantages of time charging are:
- The client may be charged a full unit whether or not the work takes six minutes or not;
- The client may be charged more if the lawyer takes an unusually higher amount of time to complete a given task;
- The cost conscious client may limit the frequency/extent of contact with their lawyer, inevitably impacting on their understanding of the legal issues and their ability to make informed decisions to draw their matter to a conclusion quickly and cost effectively.
Due to the above factors, time charging understandably causes clients concern about their legal fees spiralling out of control.
In our experience, clients want certainty, transparency and control of their legal fees.
Time charging does not comprise any of these qualities.
The concerns which arise from clients due to time charging are usually managed by lawyers providing estimates to their clients of the legal fees payable by them for a particular scope of work.
However, in our experience, estimates do not provide the client with certainty and transparency in relation to their legal fees as:
- The estimate provided by the lawyer is usually broad and is a ‘guideline’ only;
- The lawyer is not bound by the estimate given, provided the work undertaken by the lawyer remains within the scope of work instructed by the client;
- The estimate usually does not adequately take into account factors out of the client’s control, which may cause legal fees to escalate beyond the estimated range.
Examples of factors out of your control which commonly have the effect of driving up your legal fees:
- Your ex contacting your lawyer on a regular basis;
- A complication arising (that does not affect the scope of work you have instructed your lawyer to perform) which through no fault of your own delays resolution of your matter.
Sounds unfair that your legal fees are increased because of issues largely beyond your control?
Barton Family Lawyers has the solution for you.
The New Way – Fixed Fees
We understand that one of your main concerns when engaging a family lawyer is the uncertainty and unpredictability of the legal fees you will pay us to solve your family law problem.
That is why Barton Family Lawyers offers fixed fees for all family law services provided to you, providing you with certainty and complete transparency as to the legal fees you will be required to pay for each step you instruct us to take, so you retain control over your legal fees, not your lawyer.
What Our Offer is not
Our offer is not a ‘one size fits all’ or a ‘menu’ based quote.
This is why we cannot provide you with a quote as to our fees on our website. We will need to speak to you first to determine the precise task you want us to undertake, and the extent of the work involved in your particular matter.
Importantly, the same task you instruct us to undertake, if undertaken on behalf of a different client, may, given the particular characteristics of their matter, take more time or less time, and as a result, the fixed fee quote we give will vary from matter to matter.
What Our Offer is
We charge fixed fees for each task (scope of work) we attend to for you, no matter how long the task takes.
Our fixed fees are individualised to your particular family law problem and the scope of the work required, as discussed with you in your first initial consultation with our experienced family law expert and Principal, Courtney Barton.
Terms & Conditions of our Fixed Fees offer
Our fixed fee quotes are based on the performance of a specific scope of work on your behalf. If the scope of the work you instruct us to undertake changes while we are carrying out your instructions, the quote we provide you will change and a new fixed fee quote will be provided to you. For example, say you reach early agreement after court proceedings are commenced, or say the other party reneges on the agreement you have reached midway through us drafting the agreement and you need to commence court proceedings, we will immediately provide you with an updated quote and a varied fixed fee agreement for you to sign and agree upon first, before further work is performed.
