It’s not often you hear someone say – “I’m having coffee with my lawyer” unless of course, they own a business, have been through a divorce, or inherited the family lawyer at birth. For most everyday folk, you likely only ever engage a lawyer when buying a house, writing your will, or during an unexpected event, like sustaining a personal injury due to someone else’s negligence.
We understand that the legal process may seem daunting when you’ve had limited experience working with a lawyer. This is especially so when you’re feeling vulnerable.
So, we’ve written this article to help better inform you of what you can expect when meeting with us for the first time.
Your initial meeting
If you’re meeting with us in person, then you would have already spoken with your new lawyer over the phone for your free case review. This is likely where we advised that taking legal action is in your best interest.
We’re pretty flexible, offering to meet you in our office or we’ll come to you. As we work to a No Win, No Fee, No Problems guarantee – there’s no out of pocket cost for this meeting.
What you’ll need:
It helps us if you can bring relevant, important documents with you. You might also like to spend time beforehand running over the circumstances leading to your claim and a timeline of events, so we can run through key details.
What we’ll ask you:
We’ll again ask you to share the details of your story, so we fully comprehend all circumstances surrounding your situation. We may ask similar questions and we may cover some bits two or three times but it’s only so we have all the information we need to provide you with the most accurate assessment of your claim.
What we’ll say:
Once we have a clear understanding and direction for your claim, we’ll talk you through the legal process applying to your case, and the next steps for you to take. Don’t worry, we won’t be burdening you with confusing legal jargon – we’ll keep things real and relatable, so you understand clearly what’s involved. If you’re still feeling apprehensive about your meeting, you’re welcome to bring someone with you for support.
Permissions and paperwork
If you decide to work with us to support you in your claim, we’ll likely offer you a Legal Cost Agreement. This is an agreement between you and your lawyer (Gouldson Legal), authorising us to act on your behalf and setting out the terms and conditions of our arrangement.
At this point, we’ll explain in detail the likely outlay costs involved to manage your claim and how we calculate our fees, so you have a pretty good understanding of what you’ll need to pay should you win your case.
You can sign the agreement at this initial meeting, or you can take it home to read it over, ask us some follow up questions, and sign at a later time when you feel you’ve better digested all the information. Just be mindful that we can’t act on your behalf until you provide your signed authorisation.
Once we have it? We kick into gear and start working on your claim.
No Win, No Fee, No Problems
You want to work with us? Amazing! We think you’re great, too.
If you engage us to look after your case, you can relax because our No Win, No Fee, No Problems guarantee means we’ll only charge you for our services if your claim is successful.
Our fees will generally cover the time your lawyer spends working on your case (communication, meetings, research, paperwork), as well as disbursements or outlays, which could include administration costs, like photocopying, printing, title searches, and third-party fees.
And if your claim is successful? Our 30% cap means we’ll never charge more than 30% of your settlement amount (plus outlays), meaning you get more money in your pocket.
Got a potential claim you’d like to discuss?
Jump on the phone and arrange your free case review with one of our compensation experts.