At Anchored Family Law we offer only fixed fee services. And most of those prices are right here on our website.
But how does that make us different?
Most law firms charge clients based on the billable hour. Usually, a billable hour is ten 6-minute “units“.
At those law firms, every time your lawyer reads an email, prepares a Court document, or advocates for you in Court, they then turn around and “time record” how many “units” that work took them to complete.
Many lawyers, including me, find that, before long, their brain begins to track time in “billable units” and not minutes and hours like a normal person. This isn’t healthy for you or your lawyer.
Alternatively, lawyers that bill by scale, charge a set amount per folio (which is each 100 words – and yes, they count them!) for a Court document and another amount per folio for a letter.
Family lawyers in particular may use a combination of “billable units” and “scale”.
The law requires your lawyer to give you an estimate at the start of your matter estimating how much it will cost. And while your lawyer will tell you how much they cost per hour or by scale, you have no way of knowing how much that will add up to when you actually get that bill.
This uncertainty is terrible for you as a client and only adds to the stress of your family law matter. It also rewards your lawyer being inefficient – the longer they take to do something, the more they get paid. The longer they make that letter to your ex’s lawyer – the more they get paid.
This is one of the reasons we are different. When we give you a quote for a fixed fee you know at the beginning exactly what your bill will look like at the end.
It means that we have made assessment on the value of the work and not the time it takes us to complete it.
And we can go ahead and do the work that you need us to do, without one eye on the clock or worrying about adding to your fees.
If your matter is going to Court under our Full Service Package we will provide you with a quote to the hearing day. Once the Court makes Orders at that hearing, we then provide you with your fixed fee options for the next step in your proceedings. This means that you decide what you engage us to do and where you spend your legal budget in your matter.
If you would like to talk to us more about our fee book an appointment here or send us an email at hello@anchoredfamilylaw.com.au.
