Step-by-step cost estimates with the arithmetic shown, quote comparisons, settlement maths and checklists for each decision.
A lawyer's estimate is only useful if you can test it. This group turns the rules into numbers: how many hours a stage might take, what a barrister's day adds, how much of your bill a costs order is likely to give back, and what is left of a settlement once fees, disbursements and refunds come out.
Begin with how to estimate legal costs, which walks through a stage-by-stage budget. The other guides each take one decision: preparing for a first consultation, comparing quotes from two or three firms, calculating settlement take-home under a no win no fee agreement, choosing a tribunal or small claims court instead of a lawyer, weighing an offer of compromise against going to trial, and deciding whether a claim is worth pursuing at all.
Use the hourly fee estimator, the costs recovery gap calculator and the settlement take-home calculator alongside the guides. All figures are illustrative; your own lawyer's written estimate is the number that counts.
Worked Estimates and Checklists
How to line up estimates from two or three Australian law firms on the same scope, adjust for rates, units, disbursements, caps and GST, and pick on total cost and risk.
Worked Estimates and Checklists
Build your own legal costs budget stage by stage, with hours, rates, disbursements, GST, recoverable costs and a worst case, using a worked civil dispute example.
Worked Estimates and Checklists
Whether a first consultation is free, how initial meetings are charged, what to prepare, and a checklist of cost questions to ask an Australian lawyer before you instruct them.
Worked Estimates and Checklists
A practical method to decide whether a claim is worth pursuing: net recovery if you win, cost if you lose, chances, enforcement risk and cheaper alternatives, with worked numbers.
Worked Estimates and Checklists
How formal offers of compromise and Calderbank letters work in Australian courts, the indemnity costs consequences, and a worked example comparing accepting an offer with going to trial.
Worked Estimates and Checklists
A step-by-step worked example of a personal injury settlement in Australia, showing professional fees, a 25% uplift, GST, disbursements and Medicare and Centrelink refunds.
Worked Estimates and Checklists
Compare NCAT, VCAT, QCAT and small claims courts with a lawyer-run court case in Australia, including claim limits, costs rules, filing fees and a worked cost comparison.
