Value for Money - Things you should consider before seeing a Lawyer

Section 56(1) of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 states:
“The overriding purpose of this Act and of rules of court, in their application to civil proceedings, is to facilitate the just, quick and cheap resolution of the real issues in the proceedings.”

The remainder of that section provides that the court, the parties, and their representatives, are under a duty to give effect to and further the overriding purpose.

The key to the “just, quick and cheap resolution of the real issues” is being clear on and understanding the nature and scope of “the real issues”.


In other words, in order to bring about the most satisfactory resolution of the matter, it is necessary to understand the real problem, that is, what really matters to you. It is also necessary to be clear on the function that you require your lawyer to fulfil.


Accordingly, the following questions should be considered before instructing a lawyer to act:

What is your situation?
- What is the background
- What went wrong / Why are you instructing a lawyer to act
- What is the problem / What needs fixing

How does this affect you?
- What does it mean for you
- What is it stopping you from doing

What are you worried about?
- What are your needs / primary concerns

What do you want to achieve?
- What you want out of it (result/outcome)
- What is your best result
- What is your worst result
- What will you be happy with / can you live with as a positive result
- What will you be happy with / can you live with as a negative result

Why do you think you need a lawyer / specifically need a lawyer's help?
- What don't you know / can't you do that you need a lawyer to do for you

What do you want your lawyer to do for you?
- What do you hope to achieve from your relationship with your lawyer
Minimum cost
Minimum time
Minimum effort
Make it go away
Enable/facilitate your carriage of the matter
Information / advice
Enable/facilitate resolution
Avoid in the future
Pursuit of legal rights / moral vindication
Other

What is the most productive way to use your lawyer's time/expertise?
- What is the actual problem that needs solving (not always just $, or just this case)
- Is there a problem beyond the problem / this case, or is it strictly about this case only
- Is there any value to be gained beyond this case that would justify additional cost and expense or should the case be abandoned / run in a minimalistic fashion
- Is there a more productive way for your lawyer to spend their time apart from on this case (e.g. revising/redrafting systems and documentation)
- How much of the work involved do you want your lawyer to do and how much do you want to (and can you) do yourself or through a third-party at a cheaper rate (e.g. document management, collation, and copying)

What can your lawyer do / what can be achieved?
- In light of the answers to the above questions, what is realistically possible and/or likely
- At what cost for each option
- What settlement offers and costs protection offers can be made
- In light of the answers to the above questions how should your lawyer's time and your time be used

How much are you willing to spend on this matter?
- What is it really worth to you
- How are you going to finance it
- Have you considered and counted the cost of your time to be spent on the matter


Generally, in order to justify the cost of litigation, unless the amount in dispute is substantial (more than $20,000) there needs to be something more at stake than simply the amount in dispute. If there is no value to be gained from the matter other than recovery of the disputed amount serious consideration should be given to abandoning the dispute, settling the matter, running a "rough and ready" case, and/or using the time and money that would be spent on the case on other, more productive, pursuits.


Once the above questions have been considered, the below summary should be filled out.


Summary of Instructions

Essential value to be derived from the matter (objective):

“Needs” to be addressed by your lawyer:

Work to be undertaken by your lawyer:

Value added by your lawyer – an objective measure to assess the performance of your lawyer (e.g. saving of time/resources elsewhere, stability of working relationship/income, protection of future working relationship/income, provision of legal advice/expertise):

Budget & how financed:

Other notes, directions, and agreements:

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