How to reduce your legal fees

Most lawyers charge primarily on a “time costing” basis.  This can mean that something as simple as calling your lawyer a few times when you forget to mention something in an earlier call can quickly increase your costs.

Here are some tips our firm, Farrar GesiniDunn Family & Collaborative Law, developed that may help you limit your fees and make your matter more cost effective:

• Rather than playing “telephone-tag” with your lawyer, ask their assistant to make a telephone appointment
• Prepare a list of questions to ask your lawyer before your meetings 
• Send  one  email  that  deals  with  a  number  of  issues rather  than  numerous  short  emails 
• Consider a  regular  telephone  appointment  once  a  week  with your solicitor  rather than multiple telephone calls during the week.
• If you only require minor changes to a proposed document, speak to the solicitor’s assistant instead of your solicitor.  
• When  documents  have  to  be  drafted,  provide  clear, concise  notes  on  the  topic  the  solicitor  has requested
• If documents from another source are required, discuss with your solicitor who will obtain the documents.  
• When providing documents to your solicitor try to bring in one bundle of documents rather than delivering one document at a time unless it is urgent.  
• If you provide your solicitor with a large bundle of documents, keep it mind that the more organised the documents are, the less time it will take (and less money it will cost) for your solicitor to review them 
•  Discuss  with  your  lawyer  the  option  of  copies  of  either  letters  being sent to you in bundles of three (if not urgent) 
• Ask your lawyer if they practice Collaborative Law, this process can be more cost effective than Court 
• Ask your lawyer if they offer fixed fees
  

At Farrar GesiniDunn Family & Collaborative Law, we invite our clients to choose how we charge. For Canberra Family Law matters, contact our Canberra office today. For all your Melbourne Family Law needs, contact our Melbourne office.

By Kasey Fox

Director

Farrar Gesini Dunn

To file or not to file...

So often as lawyers, we contemplate whether to take the next step in a matter and file at Court. It might be that we think the other party is hiding documents, or being unreasonable in negotiations or trying to intimidate our client by being overly demanding and aggressive in their correspondence. But is going to Family Court really the answer?

Family law is a difficult area for all involved. Is adding fuel to that fire really going to solve the problems?

Sometimes people go to Court thinking that it will hold all the answers, and that they will be vindicated. But unfortunately the system often leaves people feeling as if they spent a lot of time and money on a process that leaves them feeling unheard. 

Don't get me wrong - I'm a lawyer, and I spend a lot of my time in Court. It is challenging and therefore one of the most interesting parts of my job. But as I do more work in Collaborative Law, I am increasingly finding that it provides a better process for my clients. 

When I was first trained in Collaborative Law a number of years ago, I remember thinking, 'This will be a good process for people who want to stay amicable.' I assumed that the majority of matters would still go to Court or be negotiated in the traditional sense, and a small percentage would choose Collaboration. However, as Collaborative Law has grown, particularly in Canberra, I've found that it isn't only suitable to those easy cases where parties want to stay amicable, in fact, it can be a godsend in matters where the parties don't trust each other at all. 

For example, if my client thinks the other side is hiding something, instead of waiting 12 months for a final hearing to get them in the witness box, I can ask the other party direct questions from our very first meeting. Asking a question in a roundtable conference is much more cost effective than exchanging a war of correspondence between solicitors and more likely to lead to truthful responses. 

Not only do the parties commit to the Collaborative process, but the lawyers do too. This means no more aggressive letters sent at 4.59pm demanding a response the following day and no threats of going to Court. Lawyers on opposing sides working together. Who would have thought?!

As Collaborative Law has grown in Canberra, so have the number of lawyers, and different firms who practice it. I am a member of Canberra Collaborative Family Lawyers who have members from 5 different local firms, and we are adding new members all the time. 

Our Firm Farrar Gesini Dunn also has an office in Melbourne, where Collaborative Law has a large number of lawyers who are committed to the process. 

I don't think we will ever be able to leave the Courts behind completely, they are a necessary part of the system. But maybe if the majority of matters are solved via Collaborative Law, this might take some of the pressure off the Court system, so only the matters that really need a Judge to make the decision go to Court.

Family Law Collaboration: the new solution for hard cases

From my article published in B2B Canberra in June 2012

Believe it or not, not all difficult divorces need to end up in Court. Collaboration is great alternative to resolve family law matters and keep parties out of Court.

In Collaboration each client is represented by his or her lawyer through a series of meetings and all information and advice is given openly in those round table meetings. This process helps to address any power imbalance between the parties, so that one party is not bullied into a settlement. It also allows the parties to structure more creative solutions which go beyond the scope of the Court. 

(visit this page for more info on the idea behind Collaborative Law: http://www.fgd.com.au/lemon.html )

What makes Collaboration unique from other methods of dispute resolution is the contract that is signed by each of the parties and their lawyers, committing not to go to Court. If the matter doesn’t settle, then the lawyers cannot represent the parties at Court. It means that instead of lawyers playing the traditional role of a litigator and being strategic in negotiations, their goal is to settle the dispute by agreement.

So far all of my Collaboration matters have been “hard” cases. Often separating couples have zero trust in the other and will take steps simply to push each other’s buttons. In some cases, in addition to the hostility, there has been a complicated property structure, including companies, self managed superannuation funds and investment properties.

Was reaching a settlement via Collaboration for these matters cheap? No. Was it easy? Definitely not. Did the parties improve their relationship by the end of the process? Sadly not in all cases. Was it better, cheaper, faster and more controlled than Court? Absolutely!

If the parties had chosen the Court process, they would have been faced with: the Court imposing timeframes on them, limited capacity of the Court to deal with urgent issues, the lawyers only able to question the other party directly at the end of the matter (in a hearing), being unable to raise matters considered irrelevant by the Court, the possibility of the Court ordering the sale of assets, possible delay in receiving a judgment and large expenditure on lawyers, barristers and experts. 

Overall, in these cases, the Collaborative process was by no means easy, but it gave the parties the power to control their own settlement rather than rolling the dice with the Court.

For more information about lawyers who practice Collaborative Family Law in Canberra, 

visit: https://www.facebook.com/CanberraCollaborativeFamilyLawyers 

or see Canberra Collaborative Family Lawyers  spread in B2B Canberra

Separation is like an orange...

Why a separation is like dividing an orange...

(as published in August 2012 B2B Canberra Magazine by Canberra Collaborative Family Lawyers)

It’s about understanding ‘why’ a person wants something not just ‘what they want’ or what they are ‘entitled to’. 

For example:

Two celebrity chefs are in a television cook-off.  Let’s call them Gary and Kylie.  Gary decides to make Orange Sorbet.  Kylie decides to make a tuna steaks with orange zest salsa.  Problem: there’s only one orange.

Gary takes this very seriously and calls his lawyer.  In retaliation Kylie calls her lawyer.  The lawyers write to each other arguing about who is entitled to the orange.  After a lengthy Court battle the Judge orders that the orange be cut in half.  Both end up with 50% but neither of them have enough to make their dish tasty.

If Gary and Kylie sat down to understand their interests, they would realise that Gary really only needs the juice for his recipe, and Kylie needs only the rind. If they had reached an agreement based on their interests, they would have both got what they needed.

Of course, not every case is that easy – but by focusing on understanding interests means your lawyer can tailor solutions that work for both parties, not just solutions that make each person equally unhappy.

This is the aim of Collaborative Law.

Stay tuned for more information on using Collaborative Law to resolve your family law matter and our group Canberra Collaborative Family Lawyers