Brightline Lawyers
Legal Services and Costs Agreement

Version of 1 March 2018

These terms set out the rights and obligations of Brightline Lawyers (‘us’) and our clients (‘you’) when we are engaged to provide legal services.

Engagement confirmation

We will send you a written confirmation of each engagement. The engagement confirmation forms part of our agreement. It describes the scope of the work to be undertaken (‘the scope’) and costs information.

Scope

The scope is important and you should review it carefully. You must:

• make sure the scope correctly describes the legal services you require,
• contact us if the scope is wrong or if you wish to change or clarify it,
• let us know about any relevant deadlines or timeframes, and
• provide us with any further instructions, information and documents necessary to provide the services within the scope.

We are not business or tax advisers. You must satisfy yourself about the commercial and tax aspects of any proposed transaction. You must also take reasonable care to protect your own interests.

Subject to the engagement confirmation and to these terms, we will provide the legal services described in the scope.

Costs

Normally, our costs for an engagement will be fixed for work within the scope. The engagement confirmation will set out those costs.

If we do not fix a cost for an engagement, or if we undertake work outside the scope, our costs (or additional costs) will be determined on the basis of the time our lawyers are engaged. The engagement confirmation will set out the applicable rates, and an estimate of the likely costs for the engagement. Our invoices will set out the time our lawyers have been engaged, the applicable rates, and how the total cost was calculated.

Costs are expressed excluding GST. If our services are subject to GST, we will charge you GST at the applicable rate (currently 10%).

Expenses

We will charge expenses such as application or registration fees, stamp duty, couriers, bulk printing or photocopying, court filing fees and barristers' and experts' fees, at cost.

We do not charge for non-bulk printing or photocopying, the costs of telephone calls or faxes, regular mail, or day-to-day secretarial and administrative costs.

Invoicing

We will send you an invoice for our costs and expenses when we complete an engagement (or a stage within an engagement which has been separately costed). For engagements or stages which last more than 30 days, or if our engagement ends and the scope is incomplete, we may send an invoice for our costs and expenses incurred to the date of the invoice. You request that we send you invoices by email.

Our invoices are due and payable within 14 days after the date of the invoice. If you do not pay an invoice by the due date, we may suspend work, terminate our engagements with you, and/or charge interest on the amount outstanding at the RBA cash rate target plus six percentage points.

We may ask you to pay us in advance if we will need to pay a substantial expense on your behalf, or as an advance against our costs. We will pay any such money into our trust account. You authorise us to withdraw that money to pay expenses and to pay our costs.

Ending an engagement

You may end an engagement at any time by notifying us in writing.

We may end an engagement at any time by giving you reasonable prior notice, or immediately if you breach our agreement, give us inadequate instructions, instruct us to act in breach of our professional responsibilities, do not pay our accounts when due, do not provide funding in advance when we request it, or if our professional responsibilities require us to withdraw.

We are entitled to retain your property, including any relevant files and documents, until our invoices have been paid.

General

If the scope changes, our costs or estimates may also change, and we will send you an updated engagement confirmation containing updated scope and cost information. You have the right to be notified of any substantial change to anything else in these terms or the engagement confirmation.

Unless you direct otherwise, we can disclose the fact that we have acted for you, and the general nature of the engagement, in our marketing documents and tender responses.

This agreement is governed by Queensland law.

Legal costs — your right to know

You have the right to:

• negotiate a costs agreement with us
• receive a bill of costs from us
• request an itemised bill of costs after you receive a lump sum bill from us
• request written reports about the progress of your matter and the costs incurred in your matter
• apply for costs to be assessed within 12 months if you are unhappy with our costs
• apply for the costs agreement to be set aside
• accept or reject any offer we make for an interstate costs law to apply to your matter
• notify us that you require an interstate costs law to apply to your matter

For more information about your rights, please read the fact sheet titled Legal Costs — your right to know. You can ask us for a copy, or obtain it from your local law society or law institute (or download it from their website).