PAY ID 0427329514
- Telephone consultations; I offer brief (up to 30 minutes and only with prior approval) and standard (up to one hour and no prior approval required) telephone consultations for fixed fees. These may be booked and paid for at the Payment tab of the web site.
Payment may be made with PAY ID 0427329514 or all conventional credit cards (see drop down menu Select “Payment method” and select from the drop down menu either Credit Card ( for conventional credit cards such as Visa or MasterCard etc ) or PayPal Checkout which will process PayPal credit card products plus special pay as you go PayPal arrangements and holders of conventional credit cards who may wish to pay fees in 4 instalments. - Case management fees; these services include representation at Fair Work Commission conferences and so forth, fees for which can also be paid as above once quoted.
***Pro bono and discounted fees work
When I can, I allocate around a fifth of my working time to representing deserving or vulnerable clients free of charge, or for discounted rates. For calendar year 2026, that budget is already committed and there is a waiting list.
Fixed fees
I have a range of very affordable fixed fees for consultations.*
Telephone consultations
Most of my consultations are by telephone which enables me to keep my consult fees at a fraction of those of my former legal colleagues and almost all of my clients, employers or employees, find this more convenient than face to face meetings. I have never once found telephone consults to be less useful than physical meetings. I also have a range of excellent value fixed fees for various stages of actions such as for unfair dismissal and for recovery of statutory and contractual entitlements or denied contractual benefits. Please read the fine print at the bottom of this page.
My fees are ordinarily fully tax deductible for employers. The fee for my standard telephone consult of up to an hour is $275. I also offer a limited number of brief telephone consults by arrangement for up to 30 minutes for a fee $137.50 which is not available if there is any prior reading to be undertaken, and caution should be exercised when booking a brief consult because it is often difficult to resolve an employment law or fair work issue in that time. However apart from that rider, the choice is a matter entirely for my clients.
Subject only to that rider, I will provide a summary of your options during the consult, together with an analysis of the prospects of success, any risks, and the likely costs if further action is required, for example a demand or the preparation of any documents such as an unfair dismissal application. I challenge anyone to find better value for money in the fair work system given my experience and reputation. Fully receipted tax invoices are of course provided.
Telephone consultations are available by arrangement between 8 am and 5 pm every day except Saturdays. Sundays are very popular with employers and employees for obvious reasons.
Consultation fees do not allow for written advice which is available for additional fees.
Options for payment of fees
All my fees are payable in advance either by electronic bank transfer or by credit card. The Payment tab of this web site offers a PayPal facility which will process any conventional credit card. Credit card payments for fixed or custom fees can be processed via the Payments tab of my web site. In the “Select a Service” field of the Payments tab you will see three drop down options which allow you to choose between two fixed charges, or you can select the “Custom Payment Amount” and process payment of an amount we will have discussed and agreed upon.
Advisory work and representation
My hourly fees other than for standard consultations are negotiable and are generally somewhere between the rates charged by partners of large prestigious law firms and those of partners in smaller law firms. Many of my clients opt for fixed fees so that they have certainty of budget. Otherwise cases such as for unfair dismissal are notorious for uncertainty of duration and cost. There is no statutory scale of fees for the work which I undertake, except for party and party costs which are essentially irrelvant to this work given that it is conducted in tribunals which do not routinely award costs to the winner.
My senior legal colleagues who are involved in the same work as me typically charge between $1000 and $1500 per hour.
I do not offer no win no fee services, and have never been impressed by practitioners who do. Nor do I provide free advice or representation, except for pro bono work (see above).
For proceedings in the Fair Work Commission or Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission, I offer a choice between fees which are fixed or calculated by time. The fixed fees cover my advice and representation for the various stages of work for matters in those tribunals.
Often many employment issues such as denied contractual benefits can be resolved by a letter, if necessary a demand, for which I also have a range of fixed fees.
Having hung up my legal wig after more than 40 years working as a lawyer, I am not permitted to represent a client in the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit Court, or any of the other civil courts, but as a registered industrial agent I can do so in the specialist employment tribunals such as the Fair Work Commission.
*Fine print and legal stuff
My fixed fees are payable in advance at the point of booking a block of time. The fixed fee transaction consists of you acquiring from me an enforceable commitment to provide you with an agreed block of time. A request for a particular time for a consult does not necessarily secure that time and appointments are not confirmed until payment is made and a time is fixed by agreement. Until then, slots remain available to others. I operate on a “first in, best dressed” basis.
A fully receipted tax invoice is issued after payment is made and it will describe the work you have asked me to carry out.
Fees paid for consults are not refundable in the event of a cancellation except at my discretion and upon at least 24 hours’ notice. This is because others could have used the time. Booked consults are not secured until full payment has been received. Fees paid for consults which conclude before the end of the period booked are not refundable pro rata but I do reserve a discretion, which I normally offer if appropriate, to provide free further telephone advice of equivalent length if later required. This does not apply to brief consults, or to consults more than a fortnight beforehand. Consult fees do not allow for written advice or a written record of oral advice. That service is available for additional fees.
Payment of fees constitutes acceptance of these terms. My schedule is strictly managed and telephone consultations start on time and it is the client’s responsibility to call at that time and not be late. I do not accept any documents e-mailed to me until the appropriate consult or other fees have been paid.
Tax treatment of fees
Here is a link to the Australian Tax Office’s rulings on the tax treatment of fees for employment law advice and representation
https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?docid=EV/1051790014539
***** via PayPal whch accepts all conventional credit cards