Topic: Case study

Order Description Instructions please following this instruction Please do not use any references from overseas only from Brisbane Australia When Warren Warrior returns to the office you hand him the application for bail for to check. He tells you he has spent a further two hours preparing the matter for court and asks that you draft a file note to note this and record the information in the time sheet. Warren Warrior hands to you a copy of a Costs Agreement and Trust Account Authority signed by Mr. Hapless which you place on the file. The following details are included in the costs agreement. 1. Work will be charged on an hourly basis, not a fixed fee basis; 2. Warren’s hourly charge out rate is $320 + GST; 3. The hourly charge out rate for a paralegal is $140 + GST; 4. The estimated cost of acting on behalf of Mr Hapless regarding his criminal law matter is between $10,000 and $20,000; 5. If Mr Hapless was successful in defending a charge against him he may possibly be successful in obtaining an order that between $5,000 and $10,000 of his legal costs be paid by the prosecution; 6. If Mr Hapless is not successful in defending a charge against him then he might have a costs order awarded against him that may require him to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 legal costs of the prosecution Warren Warrior attends court on the following day and is successful in his submissions in obtaining bail for Mr. Hapless. He is absent from the office for three hours for his appearance in this matter. On his return Warren tells you that Mr Hapless was granted bail on the basis that his mother paid $1,000 to the Court as surety and that Mr Hapless agreed to return to the Court for the next callover hearing date in one month’s time; He advises that your task is to prepare: 1. A file note recording what Warren has told you about the bail hearing and the time involved, and recording this information in the time billing sheet; 2. A letter to Mr Hapless noting the terms on which bail was granted and the date that he must appear back at Court, and enclosing an authority for Mr Hapless to sign and return so that his doctor can provide information to Warren Warrior about Mr Hapless; 3. The bill of costs (itemised tax invoice) for the work done on the file for the bail application which is to include the time you spent on the matter from commencement as well as the time the solicitor has spent on the matter; 4. An authority for Mr Hapless to sign to allow the bill of costs to be paid from the firm trust account. You should refer to the Mt Gravatt Law Centre Precedents to assist them in the preparation of these documents. Assessment checklist:You need to Fill this forms a do the letter Please ensure you provide the following document/s for this assessment. • File note • Letter to Mr. hapless • Bill of costs • Authority for Mr.Hapless to allow costs to be drawn Mt Gravatt Law Centre 1)File Note Date: Time: Length of Call: Number: Spoke to: Your Name: Date: 2). Letter to Mr Hapless 3) Bill of cost Costs Disclosure and Costs Agreement This document, together with our General Terms of Business, sets out the terms of our offer to provide legal services to you and constitutes our costs agreement and disclosure pursuant to the Legal Profession Act [insert year in your State] (“the Act”). A Scope of Work You have instructed us to act on your behalf in a civil claim. *B Professional Fees (if fixed fee agreement) We will charge you professional fees for the work we do on a fixed fee basis in the amount of: [INSERT] *C Professional Fees (if hourly fee agreement) We will charge you professional fees for the work we do based on hourly rates. The hourly rates charged by our professional staff are set out below: (a) $[500.00 plus 10% GST] for a Partner. (b) $[400.00 plus 10% GST] for a Senior Associate. (c) $[300.00 plus 10% GST] for a Solicitor (d) $[100.00 plus 10% GST] for a para-legal and/or administrative clerks. The solicitor with principal responsibility for assisting you in this matter is (a) Partner Responsible [ create name] and (b) Paralegal [ your name] You will be proportionately charged for work involving shorter periods less than an hour. Our charges are structured in 6 minutes units. For example, the time charged for an attendance of up to 6 minutes will be 1 unit and the time charged for an attendance between 6 and 12 minutes will be 2 units. Our rates are reviewed on a regular basis and may change during the course of a matter. In relation to lengthy matters this may impact upon our cost estimates (which may be revised accordingly). You will be given 30 days' notice in writing of any foreshadowed changes to our charge out rates. D Expenses & Disbursements Internal Expenses You will be responsible for internal expenses, which we incur in carrying out your instructions. Our rates for internal expenses are: (a) photocopying: $ .70 per page. (b) facsimile charges: $ . 70 per page. Disbursements We may incur disbursements (being money which we pay or are liable to pay to others on your behalf). Disbursements may include search fees, court filing fees, process server fees, witness expenses, travel expenses, transcript expenses and barrister's fees. Where you instruct us to brief a barrister or other expert and they provide a fee agreement we will provide this to you. E Contact Person If you have any queries about our costs you should contact [INSERT your name] F Estimate of Professional Fees, Internal Expenses and Disbursements On our present instructions, we estimate the cost of the work to be: Professional fees: $[INSERT] Internal Expenses: $[INSERT] Disbursements: $[INSERT] TOTAL $[INSERT] Please note that this is an estimate only and not a fixed quote. The total costs may exceed the estimate. While the estimate is based on present information and instructions and our current understanding from you as to what services are required, our costs may exceed the estimate if further information becomes available or circumstances change which impact on these matters. In this event we will provide you with a revised estimate as soon as practicable. Variables Some of the variables, which may impact upon the cost estimate provided above include the following: (a) the number and duration of telephone calls or other communications; (b) your prompt and efficient response to requests for information or instructions; (c) whether your instructions are varied; (d) whether documents have to be revised in light of varied instructions; (e) the lawyer or other persons with whom we deal and the level of co-operation of the lawyer’s clients and other persons involved; (f) changes in the law; and (g) the complexity or uncertainty concerning legal issues affecting your matter. *G Estimate of Costs Payable and Recoverable on Litigation Outcome We are required by the Act to provide you with an estimate of the range of costs that may be recovered by you if you are successful in the litigation and the range of costs that you may be ordered to pay if you are unsuccessful in the litigation. It should be appreciated that an order by a court for the payment of costs in your favour will not necessarily cover the whole of your legal costs. Based on our instructions, our estimates of the range of costs, which may be recoverable or payable are: (a) estimate of the range of costs recoverable by you if you win the litigation: $[INSERT] (b) estimate of the range of costs payable by you if you lose the litigation: $[INSERT] Note: (a) All courts have discretion in respect of awarding costs. Costs are normally awarded in favour of the successful party in the proceedings. In some courts such as the Small Claims Division of the Local Court and for claims less than $20,000 in the Local Court the amount of costs you can recover are very limited. (b) The estimated ranges of costs are prepared bearing in mind that only a certain percentage of your total legal costs are recoverable or may be payable. Simply put, even if you win and obtain an order that the other party pays your costs, you will still be out of pocket with respect to legal costs charged by us on the solicitor/client basis. (c) If you win at first instance, you may still face the prospect of meeting the costs of defending your verdict, if the other side appeals. If you lose at first instance, you may be advised to appeal. (d) Any cost estimates provided with respect to an appeal are very uncertain as the costs associated with an appeal will depend upon many factors including initial trial length, findings by the court of first instance, nature of appeal to be run and which party is appealing. The possible costs associated with winning or losing on appeal are not dealt with in this document but will be advised to you should an appeal follow the result at first instance. (e) Even if you are successful in proceedings and have a costs order in your favour it may still be necessary to seek to enforce such costs order through the court system. This can be time consuming and costly. The possible costs associated with such potential enforcement proceedings are not dealt with in this document, but will be advised to you should the relevant circumstances arise. (f) Courts and costs assessors take into account whether a successful party is entitled to an input tax credit in respect of legal costs already paid, when assessing costs recoverable by the successful party. Dated: Client: *(Delete if not applicable) Time Biil cost DATE CLIENT FILE WORK UNDERTAKEN TIME SOLICITOR TIME PARALEGAL Authority for Mr Hapless to allow cost to be drawn MT GRAVATT LAW CENTRE SOLICITORS Ref: **File No.** Contact: **Contact solicitor** **date*** **Client name & add** Dear **client name** RE: CRIMINAL LAW MATTER We refer to our conference on **DATE**. We confirm you have instructed us to represent you and thank you for your instructions. Enclosed is our Cost Disclosure and Cost Agreement document in accordance with the Legal Profession Act 2007 (QLD). Set out in the Cost Disclosure and Cost Agreement document is information that we are required by law to disclose to you under the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld). This document describes the basis on which we propose that you engage us. Please ensure that you have carefully read and understood the document before considering the terms of the agreement. If you wish to discuss or clarify the terms of the enclosure with us, please phone Mr Warren Warrior. At this stage, the estimates provided are only estimates and not a quotation and subject to change. Enclosed is our offer to enter into a costs agreement which you may accept by any one of the following ways: • signing and returning a copy of the costs agreement; • giving us instructions after receiving these documents; or • oral acceptance. If you accept this offer you will be regarded as having entered into a costs agreement. Whilst not essential, we would appreciate you returning the signed copies of the Disclosure Notice and Costs agreement at your earliest convenience. Yours faithfully Warren Warrior Enc. Disclosure and Costs Agreement Address: PO BOX 0000, MT Gravatt QLD 4122 Telephone No: (07)32159484 FAX No (07) 32159488 Email: [email protected]