Client Information

Office HoursCosgriff Orchard Legal - Echuca Lawyers

Our office is open from 8:45 am until 5:15 pm Monday to Friday. Our staff are happy to see clients outside of these hours by prior appointment.

Confidentiality

All communications between clients and our staff members are strictly confidential. We are not able to release information in relation to your matter without your authorisation.

File Destruction

Once all of the work has been completed on your matter, your file is closed and archived for a period of at least seven years. After the expiration of this time, the files will be destroyed without notice to you.

Document Storage

We frequently hold important documents for our client's in our strong room free of charge.

Trust Account

We are required to manage a Trust Account which is independently audited annually.

If we receive money on your behalf we will deposit the money into our trust account. We may deduct any disbursements that we have paid on your behalf and we may deduct legal costs provided a statement of account is provided to you. If we receive money to be paid to a third party we will forward that money to the third party unless you instruct us to do otherwise.

Our Fees and Charges

We are required under the Legal Profession Act 2004 to disclose information regarding our accounts and our costs and disbursements to our clients.

A client who engages or instructs Cosgriff Orchard Legal to perform work on their behalf will be liable to pay our accounts. If we are instructed to perform work on behalf of a company, the directors of the company will be liable to pay our accounts.

We generally bill our clients at the completion of a matter, however we are happy to provide accounts more frequently upon request.

We require our accounts to be paid within 14 days of the date of issue. If our accounts are not paid within this timeframe we may cease working on a file until our account has been paid. We may also hold a lien over the file as security for unpaid accounts. This means that we will not release a file to a client, another solicitor or any other person until our account has been paid.

Professional Fees

1. An hourly rate

The rate charged will vary according to the position of the person performing the work. For instance a Paralegal performing work on your file will be charged at a lower hourly rate than a Solicitor. The hourly rates are exclusive of GST and may very. We will inform you of any increase to hourly rates relating to your file. You may also be charged for photocopying, faxing and other office expenses.

2. An agreed sum

Where a sum is agreed as a fixed fee for performing services, we reserve the right to seek payment of that amount prior to those services being performed. Such services may include conveyancing matters, standard Wills and Powers of Attorney, and pleas of guilty in criminal proceedings.

Disbursements

We will charge you at cost for any expense we incur on your behalf plus any GST that may be payable. These expenses may include, but are not limited to filing fees, registration fees, barrister's and expert's fees, bank charges, travel expenses, stamp duty, courier fees, company searches, document conversion and title searches.

Once we incur these expenses you are required to reimburse us for them on demand.

We may ask you to pay such amounts as are required for expenses we expect to incur plus any GST that may be payable.

We may also charge you for office service charges including but not limited to photocopying, facsimiles and scanning. Please contact us if you require details of these charges.

We will charge you $30 being the estimated cost incurred by us on creation of a new file on your behalf (excluding fixed-cost conveyancing, Wills or Powers of Attorney).

Interest on unpaid accounts

If an account relating to legal work in the Victorian jurisdiction remains unpaid thirty (30) days after you receive it, we may charge you interest at the rate fixed under division 2 of the Penalty Interest Rate Act 1983. This rate varies from time to time.

If an account relating to legal work in the New South Wales jurisdiction remains unpaid 30 days after you receive it, we may charge you interest at the lower of the rates referred to at Section 321(4) of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW). This rate varies from time to time.

If you do not pay our account this entitles us to exercise a common law right known as a solicitor's lien. The lien allows us to retain your documents until our account is paid.

Complaints

If you have any concern about our legal costs or our legal services please speak to the partner responsible for your work. Our partners are Jim Cosgriff, Jenny Orchard and Hugh Melville.

If we cannot satisfactorily resolve your concern relating to work in the Victorian jurisdiction, you may:

  • Seek a costs review by the Taxing Master under Division 7 of Part 3.4 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (Vic) within 60 days after the bill is given to you or the law practice requests payment of costs or you pay the costs;
  • Apply to VCAT to set aside this agreement under section 3.4.32 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (Vic);
  • Make a complaint to the Legal Services Commissioner under chapter 4 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (Vic) within 60 days after the legal costs were payable or, if an itemised bill was requested in respect of those costs, within 30 days after the request was complied with.

If we cannot satisfactorily resolve your concern relating to work in the NSW jurisdiction, you may:

  • Seek a costs assessment under Division 11 of Part 3.2 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW);
  • Apply for your costs agreement to be set aside pursuant to Section 328 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW); or
  • Refer the dispute to mediation pursuant to Division 8 of Part 3.2 if the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) if the costs are less than $10,000.
  • You must take action if you are unhappy with your costs within 60 days after the bill is given to you or the law practice requests payment of costs or you pay the costs, whichever is the earliest.

Termination of Services

You may end our engagement by written notice at any time. If you do this, you must pay our legal costs up until that time.

Circumstances may arise (such as a conflict of interest) which make it impossible for us to continue to act for you. If this happens, we will contact you immediately.

If you do not pay our account, or if you fail to pay money in advance if it is requested, we may stop work until we are paid. If the account continues to remain unpaid we may cease to act for you.

If we cease to act for you:

  • we will not incur any liability as a result;
  • we will remove our name from the court record in any court proceedings;
  • you will receive a final account which will include all outstanding legal costs;
  • you must pay our legal costs up until the date when we cease to act; and
  • we retain the right to keep your documents until we are paid in full.