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Lawyers in Western Australia are extremely
expensive and the dysfunctional legal system makes it even more so. I
met one who
does not charge by the hour. His flat rate is $10.000 plus expenses,
irrespective of whether the job takes 30 minutes or
an entire day.
As you will see from the two Cost Disclosure Agreements below you
will pay for every phone call, letter, reading of an email and photocopy.
My favorite, is the cost of a photocopy at $1 plus GST per page. If
the person operating the photocopier could pocket the money he/she could make tens of thousands of dollars
per
month.
I had to pay $400/hour plus GST for my solicitors and
a lot more for
a barrister. At the time, $400 was the maximum a solicitor could
charge for taking on a personal injury case. However, it did not
stop one firm from trying to charge me an "uplift fee" of 10% on top
of the $400. I refused to pay it.
I don't deny that I went to a lawyer of my own
free will, but nothing could quite prepare me for the experience that
followed. Initially I approached my first solicitor from Mossensons in
Perth due to ICWA not reimbursing me for any of my treatment
costs. I just had arrived from Europe after an absence of twenty years
from, Australia and I
had no idea what our rights were or how the third party insurance
system worked. When our accident became a personal injury case it
turned out that Mossensons had little to no experience in this area.
My solicitor Anthony Prentice was unable to advise
me where I could obtain independent expert medical opinions. After
three years of exorbitant legal fees and little to no progress I was
forced to look for alternative legal representation. One of my
daughter's went to school with the daughter of Mr. John D'Angelo and
that is how I ended up with Friedman, Lurie, Singh and D'Angelo
(FLSD).
I will let the reader be the judge when
comparing the Cost Disclosure Statements below and the actual
costs that were billed by Mossensons. From the time of the MVA in 2003 to trial
begin in 2009 I paid for all my
legal fees and expert reports. In addition, during the trial I paid
for all subsequent reports
and expert witness costs (approximately $250.000). All up I paid
around $500.000 over seven years. Today I am left with
additional legal fees for the trial parts which amount to roughly $300.000
to $400.000.
Beware of the No Success No Fee model offered
by some legal firms:
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1) You loose all control over your claim
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2) If you receive only a single dollar in
compensation, you will be up for all your legal costs
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3) If you receive no compensation whatsoever, you become liable for
the other side's (defendant) legal costs and in most cases the cost of
your own disbursements (as mentioned above in my case were
$250.000 during the trial period in 2009 alone).
The law firm will not hesitate
to put a caveat on any property you might own.
It is very important tot understand that any person seriously injured in a motor
vehicle accident with a claim to be expected to be above above
$250.000 realises that he/she has a 90% chance of the claim going before a
court for settlement. It is when the courts become involved that the
costs really skyrocket requiring:
- settlement conferences
- pre trial conferences
- witness costs
- expert reports
- trial costs
- video conference costs
- translation costs
- and in most cases a barrister's services
During this time you will most probably:
- not receive any salary continuance from ICWA
- ICWA will probably not pay for all or any of your treatment and
medication costs
Note: If ICWA settles a
claim out of court, ICWA is required to consider ALL available
evidence when calculating an offer. However, if a claim goes to court
for settlement ICWA is not required to consider ALL available
evidence and more unfortunately ICWA is permitted to withhold
evidence from court (this is called 'claiming privilege over
documents') which might support a
plaintiff's claim.
According to the WA Attorney General this
is a legitimate tactic!
I don't believe that being able to withhold
evidence was the intent of the original legislation.
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The option of
going to court is being used by ICWA to circumvent the requirement
that ALL evidence must be considered when settling out of court.
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Without having access to ALL the evidence available, a court decision
is always going to be arbitrary and will result in too many unsatisfactory/unfair
outcomes!
Cost Disclosure Statement - Mossensons
Cost Disclosure Statement - Friedman Lurie Singh & D'Angelo
Actual invoiced costs - Mossensons 2003-2007
Caveat placed by Friedman Lurie Singh & D'Angelo on our home
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