Here at the Andrews Legal Group we pride ourselves on advising our clients of the costs of their matter both initially and during the course of your matter. To this end and to ensure clarity we have developed the following rates or methods of charging clients to ensure that access to professional legal services are affordable.

When charging legal costs and entering into costs agreements, law practices must follow and apply the requirements in Part 4.3 of the Uniform Law. The Uniform Law imposes a specific requirement that legal costs must be fair and reasonable in all the circumstances. Section 172(2) sets out factors that can be considered in determining whether what is charged is fair and reasonable, and in particular are proportionate and reasonably incurred and proportionate and reasonable in amount. Section 200 of the Uniform Law sets out further the factors which are to be taken into account in a costs assessment in considering whether legal costs for legal work are fair and reasonable. There is also an obligation pursuant to Section 173 to avoid acting in a way that unnecessarily results in increased legal costs. In particular, the lawyer must act reasonably to avoid unnecessary delay resulting in increased legal costs.

Fixed Fee

A Fixed Fee Arrangement is an alternative to the standard hourly rate used by our lawyers with a fixed price for each stage or a specific of legal task or work. Some legal work we perform can be on a fixed fee basis wherein we have completed that task on a number of occasions and can offer it on a fixed fee basis. Examples of this type of work are:

• Wills;
• Powers of Attorney;
• Conveyancing;
• Retirement Villages;
• Solicitors Certificates;
• Guarantees;
• Leasing;
• Court Appearances;
• Preparation of Binding Financial Agreements (BFA); and
• Giving Advice and providing certificates for Binding Financial Agreements;

This gives you some certainty regarding legal costs.

Hourly Rate

If you pay according to an hourly rate, we charge you varying rates for each hour of work done by our lawyers. The rate varies according to the seniority of the lawyer.

Blended Fixed and Hourly Rate

With a blended rate, we charge you a single rate for each Court appearance or task and hourly rates for other work completed.

This option is suited to matters such as Family Law where we know with a high degree of certainty what type or amount of work needs to be done at certain stages but don”t know what other work might need to be performed or where a team approach using multiple lawyers or Barristers is required to achieve overall cost effectiveness.

Pay At The End

We can get paid at the end of your case in some instances, known as ‘Fees Withheld’ or on the drip.
This applies where there will be money available at the end of your case, but you cannot cover your legal fees along the way. Such an offer is based on our assessment of your case. It is not offered in every situation.

Pro Bono

In limited circumstances we do have scope to provide pro-bono legal services. These services are usually referred by partner organisations and not from the public at large.

Contact us to discuss our legal costs and what we can do for you.

9. Need to add corporate responsibility page with the following info:

What is Corporate Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is a type of international private business self-regulation that aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethically-oriented practices. These can include but are not limited to gender equality, being involved in community groups, fund raising and recognition that we are custodians of our land and environment, through this we can drive social responsibility and change.

How we make a difference at Mepstead Lawyers

We believe that when it comes to corporate and social responsibility – like law its about the little things, If you look after the little things then the big things will look after themselves. So how we make a difference is through the small things like:

Sponsorship – Community Activities and Events

• Sponsorship -Child Fund;
• Sponsorship – Bunyip Rodeo;
• Sponsorship – Drouin Speedway;
• Sponsorship -Riding For the Disabled (RDA);
• Sponsorship – Various community groups such as Bowls clubs and Junior netball and football in our area; and
• Sponsorship – Dusa Ceningan Bali Indonesia – dog sterilisation and feeding programme;

Equality and Diversity

• Office – recognition and acknowledgement that all people are equal and respecting religious and personal freedoms;
• Office – recognising that we are custodians of our Planet;
• Staffing – almost 60 percent of our staff are female;
• Staffing – 23% of our staff were born outside Australia;
• Staffing – 100% of staff work flexible hours; and
• Staffing – Family friendly hours and working environment.

Environmental

• Think before you print;
• Limit and recycle office waste;
• Use recycled materials where possible;
• Green Energy;
• Carbon Credits/off set for travel

Social Responsibility

• Office – Participate in Community groups and functions;
• Office – Pro Bono legal work with other stake holders in the Criminal Justice System;
• Staff – paid leave to participate;
• Staff – paid and unpaid leave to participate in Community Groups and other activities such as Army Reserve  and community activities

By supporting our firm by retaining our goods and services you assist us in helping the community Ask yourself what little things could you change or influence to make the world we live in a better place both for us and for our children and grandchildren?