How do compensation lawyers charge in Queensland

The following opinions are based on Bold Lawyers experience with the compensation law system in Queensland. We acknowledge that we do not know how every compensation law firm charges their clients, however in our experience, the information provided below is consistent with how a large number of firms charge.

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Things to consider when engaging a no win, no fee lawyer

Nearly all compensation lawyers charge on a no-win, no-fee basis. Not all no-win, no-fee client agreements are the same. In our experience, some of the key things to be aware of before you sign a retainer are:

Who is paying your outlays?

You need to check if the firm is responsible for paying the outlays of your case. Some firms only no win, no fee their solicitor fees and make you pay for the cost of medico-legal reports. These reports can be many thousands of dollars.

What is the hourly rate you'll be charged?

What's the hourly rate charged by the lawyer running your case?
Because the client agreement is no win, no fee, most firms charge very high hourly rates of engagement. Its not uncommon for senior lawyers to charge over $500 per hour for undertaking speculative work, no win, no fee work.

Who is actually going to do the work on your case?

Most client agreements have different charge out rates for partners, lawyers and paralegals undertaking work on an injured persons file.
Its important to understand who is actually going to be doing the work on your file. Who is the person you will have day-to-day contact with? Is it actually the senior partner or is it going to be paralegal staff (not qualified lawyers) most of the time.
Imagine a situation where a junior staff member does work on a file, then a senior lawyer reviews and checks the work of the junior staff member and you foot the bill for both. It maybe the case that you are better off engaging a senior solicitor to do the work rather than having a layered approach that increases your costs.

Will you be charged uplift fees?

Watch out for client agreements that have 'up lift fees' in them. An up lift fee entitles the firm to increase their fee above what the actual charge is because the work is no-win, no-fee. In our experience uplift fees can be anywhere from 10% - 30% on top of actual fees at the end of the case.

The 50% rule is the maximum amount of legal fees that you can be charged by a no-win, no-fee lawyer for personal injury work in Queensland.

If you ring a lawyer and ask for an estimate of your fees and their response is "you will be charged 50% of your compensation" that means your getting charged the maximum amount permitted under the law.

The 50% rule works as follows:

Total lump sum amount of damages (your award of compensation, plus any legal costs you receive).
Deduct any outlays (medico-legal report and barrister fees) and deduct any government charges (medicare, Centrelink).
This amount is divided by two and the resulting figure is the amount you could be charged in legal fees.

An example would be $100,000 in compensation plus $25,000 in legal costs = $125,000 lump sum.

The injured claimant has $5,000 in medico-legal reports to pay and owes medicare $2,500. Those amounts are deducted from the lump sum of $125,000, leaving $117,500.

The $117,500 is then divided by two. This means that by law, you cannot receive less than $58,750 and the your solicitor cannot charge more than $58,750.

Does the firm intend to use a barrister on your case?

Some cases do demand the involvement of specialised barristers however a significant number of personal injury cases don't. For example, in most car accident cases, generally there is no dispute about who caused the accident.
In a personal injury case, barrister fees are treated as 'outlays'. This means that a barristers fee is not taken into account when calculating the 50% rule (the maximum amount you can be charged).
In our opinion, if you have a straight-forward case and you are not catastrophically injured, there is no reason why a barrister should be engaged to do a lot of work if you have engaged a competent and experienced solicitor to start with.

Do they provide you with an itemised bill?

No win no fee lawyers are permitted to give you a 'short form' bill at the end of your case. This means that they don't have to itemise everything that they have done on your case.
What this means is that you don't get very much information regarding what you have actually been charged with

Firms that set maximum fees

In Bold Lawyers opinion, setting a maximum fees at the start of your case is a good thing however the setting of a maximum fee for an actual dollar amount rather than a percentage is highly preferable.
The setting of a maximum fee based on the percentage of your case can still leave you open for a large legal bill, particularly if you are badly injured. For example, if a firm charge s a maximum 30% fee of your case, if your case is worth $300,000, it still allows a firm to charge a large amount of your compensation.
Setting a maximum fee in a dollar amount at the start of your case, is in our opinion, the fairest way for you to know what the maximum amount of your legal fees are.

Summary

An injured person needs to know have enough understanding at the start of their case to ensure they are not left with a large legal bill at the end of their case which they were not expecting.

No win, no fee sounds good but its the details of the client agreement that really matter.

Bold Lawyers offer fixed maximum fees in dollar amounts that are negotiated with clients at the start of their case. For some cases, we offer a service where the entirety of our clients legal costs are paid by the insurer meaning that the injured person receives close to 100% of your compensation rather than losing up to 50% in legal costs.