Robert J Garvey, Solicitor

Robert Garvey will carry out your instructions personally and engage services for you (e.g. agents, barristers, searchers, document specialists, transcribers) when efficient and appropriate. He will conduct your matter in good faith with professional skill and diligence and keep you informed of all material developments. Your legal interests as the client are the paramount concern so Robert Garvey will use all reasonable measures to keep your information secure and confidential. He will not deliberately become involved in anything that would cause a real or material conflict with your interests. If such conflict unavoidably arises, Robert Garvey will require you reconsider his retainer because conflicts are a hindrance preventing the giving to you of everything within his knowledge that is material and relevant to your interests and the best conduct of your file in the shortest amount of time.

You promise to be truthful and candid with Robert Garvey and make yourself reasonably available to be kept informed and give information, documents, codes, and precise instructions. You must speak and act rationally or provide access to your medical records. You must decide and answer, after advice, all questions asked of you. You must declare if you are unsure or hazy about a document before you sign it.  You must communicate any significant dates, events, timelines, or changes in circumstances relevant to your matter. You acknowledge a right and opportunity to have independent counsel negotiate the terms under which you retain Robert Garvey. You promise to pay the legal costs or directly request and declare the case for pro bono assistance or a third party payer. You acknowledge Robert Garvey does not warrant non-legal advice or opinions outside the retainer.

Subject to any specific agreement reached as to a fixed or formularised fee for work carried out on your behalf, Robert Garvey will account to you on a time-cost basis. Robert Garvey charges a maximum of $275 per hour plus GST (10%) and records his time in 6-minute units or part thereof. Robert Garvey only records time to your account for doing things necessary, proper prudent or courteous to carry out your instructions. Obviously, depending on whether or not any complicating factors emerge, billing on a time-cost basis may result in a higher or lower bill compared to that if you were charged on a fixed fee or another basis.

While time-costing provides an objective criterion to produce and test a legal bill if queried, other discretionary factors play a part in determining a final bill. For instance, on a time-charged matter, the hourly rate usually tapers downward after the first hour. Other factors are the value of your contribution as a client (e.g. giving clear instructions); whether the work had to be done on an urgent basis or you allowed other matters to take priority; the complexity and novelty of the legal issues; the degree of responsibility, specialised knowledge or monetary value at stake; and comparative prices for the work. Applications of discretion in the billing analysis are intended to ensure fairness, true value and to ameliorate any unsatisfactory outcome derived from merely recording time without looking at the big picture. Long term, preferred clients receive at least 25% discount.

For non-urgent or researched opinion work apt to cost over $1,500 Robert Garvey will give you a forthright estimate of total costs. Where estimation is difficult (e.g. there are numerous pertinent uncontrollable events or factors, or instructions are extensive or broad) then I will give a range of costs and comment on the significant variables that will affect actual cost. The estimate is a convenient basis for funds deposited into trust at commencement. The estimate is not a fixed price so your final bill may be more or less, but Robert Garvey will keep you informed of substantial changes and give progress reports on request. For litigious matters, you will also have an estimate of costs that you might recover from the other party or be ordered to pay (in addition to your own costs) if that litigation is unsuccessful and an estimate of the gap between a costs order in your favour and your entire costs.

Professional or legal fees may be separate to or inclusive of other costs or outlays that Robert Garvey incurs on your behalf. Common examples are searches, filing fees, agency fees, barrister’s fees, advertising and bank cheque fees. There are also ’soft outlays’ such as in-house document production costs, telecommunications charges and postage including express and registered post envelopes, shipping tubes and the like. Outlays or disbursements are only limited by the scope of your instructions and either itemised on your bill as outlays or described as included within the legal fee as a professional service. All soft outlays included on your bill will be reasonably detailed and an accurate costing or an estimated lower amount. For matters where it s not economical to account for the cost of soft outlays to the accuracy required by the Legal Services Commission then you accept a surcharge on legal fees of either 5% of the professional fees or $25 per month for the active life of your file, plus GST, whichever is the greater, as a genuine pre-estimate. Hard outlays incurred but not yet paid are billed as legal fees, not outlays. Before incurring extraordinary outlays not normally involved in the work to be performed, Robert Garvey will seek your consent, usually in the form of a trust account direction. Hard outlays paid using this firm’s cash or overdraft and included on your account might be billed plus 10% GST, regardless of whether the outlay was GST free or inclusive. Outlays paid using your funds (i.e. from your deposits into the firm’s trust account) are of course not on-billed to you. You will save money and avoid unnecessarily paying GST by ensuring your outlays are paid using trust funds whenever possible. The precise charges for outlays and non-legal work where not otherwise agreed and for legal work not covered by a valid costs agreement are as set out in the Supreme (or other applicable) Court of Queensland Scale Costs in the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules.

Bills are issued conditionally in lump sum short form monthly, at the completion of a matter or milestone or on request and you agree to pay the bill within 14 days of receiving it. Overdue bills accrue interest at 1.5% per month or part thereof, accruing fortnightly on and from the due date on any overdue amount. You can request that the short form bill be instead fully detailed in long form and it will be supplied within 28 days of your request. That way, every item of legal work is indentified with a separate charge. Itemised bills may be supplied without cost; however, that detailed costing analysis may justify either an increase or decrease the amount properly payable. Nothing in these terms affects your right to contact the Queensland Legal Services Commission or staff from the Client Relations Centre at the Queensland Law Society to query a bill, or indeed to apply under the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules to the relevant Court (either the Supreme, District or Magistrates Court) to challenge a bill. You have 12 months from receipt of a bill to apply for an independent costs assessor to review it for fairness and reasonableness. You pay the fee for the costs assessor unless the bill is reduced by 15% or more. You also have an option of challenging the validity of your costs agreement by applying to the Supreme Court. All liens are reserved until all properly raised tax invoices are paid.

Robert Garvey operates a trust account for the benefit of clients which is regulated by the Trust Accounts Act 1973. This firm’s trust account details are:

Robert J Garvey Solicitor Trust Account
ANZ Bank 324 Queen St (Corner Creek St) Brisbane
Branch (BSB) no. 014 002 Account no. 4977 71221

Robert Garvey is the trustee. Please contact him the same day you deposit funds into the trust account so that a trust account receipt can be issued. Robert Garvey can only draw on your trust funds after they have been ‘cleared’ by the ANZ Bank. The time it takes for funds to clear depends much on how the funds are deposited to the trust account. For example, a personal cheque may take over one week and bank cheques will take around three business days. Electronic transfers are quicker. Telegraphic transfers enable funds to be clear sometimes within hours. When Robert Garvey holds your money in trust as provision for legal costs for a particular matter, then unless you object, that money may be applied to pay the corresponding tax invoice 7 days after it is duly issued to you. On a sale transaction, if you have not deposited funds in trust to cover legal costs previously, you authorise payment at settlement into the trust account an appropriate provision for legal costs.

At the closure of each matter, Robert Garvey will write a final letter to you making it clear the legal work is completed. Prior to then, you may cancel your retainer by giving Robert Garvey notice of your intention to do so at anytime and without reason. Robert Garvey will not cease to act for you prior to completion of the retainer without cause such as you lose the capacity to give instructions or just fail to do so, or indicate that you have lost confidence. In that event, Robert Garvey will give you as much notice as he reasonably can of his intention to no longer act for you. You will not be charged for any fees or an outlay incurred after a retainer is effectively terminated.

The Queensland Law Society’s Client Relations Centre contact details are 179 Ann Street Brisbane Qld 4000 Tel 3842 5843 Fax 3842 5999. Additionally there is the Legal Services Commission, which is an independent statutory body. The Queensland Law Society has not been the main arbiter of complaints against solicitors since 1 July 2004. The Commission’s responsibility ensures complaints against solicitors are dealt with transparently. The current Legal Services Commissioner, who is not a lawyer, is Mr. John Briton. His office contact details are PO Box 10310 Brisbane Q 4000 Tel 07 3406 7737. Queensland law applies. The Legal Profession Act (Qld) 2007 regulates legal costs in Queensland including the making of costs agreements, and establishes a mechanism for the review of legal bills and the setting aside of costs agreements.