How We Charge

A costs agreement is a contract between you and us which sets out clearly what you have asked us to help you with, how we will charge you for that work and when we can expect to be paid for that work. It is important to us that you understand what we can offer you in our costs agreement before you choose us. We will take you through the costs agreement in detail so that you understand what we can offer you and you can ask us any questions that you may have before you sign the legal document.

Legal costs can refer to professional fees and/or disbursements. Professional fees mean the time that we spend on your case helping you. Disbursements mean the money that we pay to third parties during your claim, e.g. to a doctor for a medical report.

Disbursements are expenses paid to third parties that we engage to assist us in your claim. In most cases, it is common to ask a doctor to prepare a medical report about your injury, and that doctor will require payment for their service. Other examples are Court filing fees, other expert or witness fees, barristers’ fees etc.

The legislation says that law firms who offer no win, no fee agreements to clients can charge an additional amount on top of their base professional fees. The uplift fee must not exceed 25% of legal costs but this can be very expensive so if it is charged, the law firm must explain why the uplift fee is warranted. We DO NOT charge an uplift fee.

You will only pay professional fees if your claim is successful however in some cases, we may ask you to pay for some of your disbursements. We will give you an estimate of what those disbursements will be before you choose us to help you. We understand that a lot of clients may not be able to pay for disbursements, especially if they have been injured or are unwell. If you cannot afford to pay for your own disbursements, we can discuss other options with you.

No, the legislation in Queensland sets the maximum amount of claim-related costs a law firm can be paid according to this formula [E – (R+D)] x 0.5. If you’re not a mathematician (like us!), all this means is that the law firm cannot take more than what you put in your own pocket.

They don’t have to be. Generally, the longer the case takes, the more the costs increase. Often, the expense goes up when your original lawyer moves on, and you get a new one mid-claim. You end up paying them to get up to speed and come up with their own case theory. With us, there’s no downtime because we are not going anywhere! Also, many law firms will charge you for work that is done by non-legally qualified staff, with a lawyer then having to make sure it is correct before it is sent out. At Oak Medical Law, there’s no doubling up because our use of technology means that our administrative work can be efficiently done by us.

You can always end an agreement with your existing lawyer. However, before you do that, you should look at your agreement with the other lawyer to confirm whether any costs will be owed to them if you terminate the contract. You should also check that another lawyer can assist you with your claim first so that you do not find yourself without a lawyer. It may not always be in your best interest to change lawyers. However, if you are considering changing lawyers, please contact us so that we can discuss your options with you.

This will depend on your agreement with your first lawyer. If your first lawyer has agreed to act on a no win, no fee basis, they will usually agree to their fees being paid when you successfully resolve your claim. If you need further advice about this, please contact us so that we can discuss your options with you.

No, we can start from where your previous lawyers left off. We will need to review your file with your previous lawyers so that we understand what steps have been taken and what we need to do next.