ALFA Lawyers are dedicated to assisting you to successfully apply accountability to alleged wrongdoers (individuals or companies) who may have caused you financial or other damage or injuries, either personally, or to your business interests.
Our view is that the law in Australia supports fairness and justice in the community, including clear community perceptions of justice, natural justice, and the concept that people and companies must accept responsibility, and be accountable, for the consequences of how they conduct themselves in their business or personal affairs.
WE OFFER CHOICES
We provide you with realistic and relevant advice on your prospects of success, and we will inform you of all the legal options available to help you achieve your targeted goals. Importantly, we are also keenly aware of the potentially high costs that any legal matter can generate today, and we fully understand your need to keep your legal costs proportional with the principles at stake, without compromising on the quality of the services we provide.
There are several methods a legal practitioner can use to calculate their professional fees. In the absence of a costs agreement which specifies a different basis of calculation, the professional fees of a legal practitioner are determined by statutory scales of costs. Scales of costs are regulated by Acts of Parliament or Statutory Rules and their application is supervised by the Courts.
Our fees for acting for you in any legal matter are exceptionally reasonable. We recommend that you investigate fees and costs before choosing a lawyer. Our fees can usually be based on the court-approved scales of cost, as noted above, or we can use a very reasonable hourly rate or a highly competitive fixed fee. You can choose the method that will work best for you. Our choice of billing methods can give you the most cost-effective outcome in your legal matter.
Our firm expects to place itself under the same level of accountability that we would apply to others. Therefore, to help you achieve the best results for the most reasonable cost, and depending on the type of legal service you are seeking, we will explain the different billing methods available to you for our legal services, such as the following:
- Costing based on time
- Fixed rate agreements Scales of costs,
- or a mixture of scales of costs and either of the above
FAMILY and PERSONAL LAW
We can assist you with any aspect of a family law matter. In the process, we help safeguard and enforce your legal rights in the most efficient and economical way possible, and to enforce both the concept and the reality of accountability in your spouse or partner. Skilful evidence gathering can be crucial to your success when negotiating a financial agreement. In these financial matters, our forensic audit skills combined with our legal capabilities put us in the best possible position to gather sufficient and reliable evidence to support your case. We invite you to view our Forensic Audit and Legal Support page for more information on our abilities in this important area.
- Financial Agreements/Property Settlements
- Seniors/Elder Law
- Power of Attorney
- Wills and Estates
We can also help you to:
- Create cohabitation and prenuptial (or post-nuptial) financial agreements in order to secure your assets in a marriage or civil union, to help avoid future financial disputes in the event of a divorce or break-up of your union
- Create Financial Agreements / Property Settlements following your divorce
- Make a claim in court (e.g. a personal injury or a building dispute), or to defend a claim made against you
- Make your Will, or to challenge a will in which you believe you have a legitimate claim.
- Create Powers of Attorney to help you control your life
- Recover debts owed to you
- Resolve cases of potential or alleged financial elder abuse
COMMERCIAL and CONTRACT LAW
If you are a business person, we can help you deal with a broad range of legal and forensic issues, both in Australia and in your overseas offices, including allegations relating to possibly fraudulent business transactions, misleading and deceptive conduct, conflicts between partners or directors, employee or management fraud, disputes regarding trade practices, insurance disputes, commercial contractual disputes, and a range other commercial legal issues.
- General Litigation (all Courts, VCAT)
- Debt Recovery
- Contracts and Agreements
- Fraud Offences
- Forensic Audit/Legal Support Services
We offer legal services with special expertise in forensic accountability issues, as our principal lawyer is also an experienced forensic accountant. We offer our services to you as a business person, or as an individual, or if you are a lawyer or accountant who requires skilful gathering of forensic evidence to support your clients' cases, to you as well.
WE HELP YOU SAFEGUARD AND ENFORCE YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
ALFA Lawyers will provide you with realistic and relevant advice on your prospects of success in court and we will inform you of all the legal options available to help you achieve your targeted goals. However, where litigation is unavoidable, in addition to our legal capabilities, we can offer integrated evidence gathering, analysis, and assessment employing significant skills in forensic auditing which can be applied to the gathering of important forensic evidence, in any type of legal matter, either commercial or domestic, to help prove your case, and to demonstrate the accountability of the person or company that may be ultimately responsible for your proven losses.
In certain matters (notwithstanding the merits of your case,) highly effective technical defences can also sometimes be applied to successfully defend a claim.
We act for both Plaintiffs and Defendants.
We help safeguard and enforce your legal rights in the most efficient and economical way possible, and to enforce both the concept and the reality of accountability among those alleged wrongdoers who are ultimately proven responsible for injustices and damages.
One important way we can express our respect and concern for you as a client is to confer with you on a very regular basis. Frequent updates of progress in your case are important for your wellbeing and for you to have the opportunity to continue to instruct us and advise us as your case progresses.
We consider this regular communication so important that we offer it as a free client service, via telephone conference, or other media, if more convenient for you. We want you to feel in control as much as possible in any matter, or at least in the loop, when important decisions must be made either in costs or in strategy.
Skilful evidence gathering is also critically necessary for success in mediation or negotiation and crucial to your success if the case should ever proceed to the courts.
If you have received a letter of demand or a Complaint or a Writ, we can help you to settle the claim or, in cases where negotiation or settlement does not work and the matter proceeds to court, we will actively defend you.
Negotiation and/or mediation are important first steps in any dispute.
By attempting to negotiate and settle legal disputes early in a matter, enduring relationships can often be saved, and the significant outlay of time, emotion, and money involved in court proceeding can often be avoided. If a dispute does not resolve to your satisfaction, however, even after genuine attempts at settlement, we can offer smart and sensible strategies to protect your interest through due process in the courts or other governmental bodies.
We help safeguard and enforce your legal rights in the most efficient and economical way possible, and to enforce both the concept and the reality of accountability among those alleged wrongdoers who are ultimately proven responsible for injustices and damages.
Legal Costs
Our fees for acting for you in any litigation are exceptionally reasonable. We recommend that you investigate fees and prices before choosing a lawyer. Our fees can usually be based on the scales of cost made under various rules of court, or remuneration orders made under statutory authority, rather than being an hourly rate or a fixed fee. We will explain the options to you and, with our help, you can choose the method that will work best for you. Our choice of billing methods can give you the most cost-effective outcome in your matter. We invite you to look at our fees for service page to learn more about our billing methods.
We also cordially invite you to arrange a consultation with an experienced litigation lawyer (with no obligation) to discuss your case.
FRAUD CASES
If you are a victim of fraud, we can help you deal with a broad range of legal and forensic issues, including allegations relating to possibly fraudulent business transactions, misleading and deceptive conduct, conflicts between partners or directors, employee or management fraud, disputes regarding trade practices, insurance disputes, commercial contractual disputes, and a range other commercial legal issues.
In cases of fraud or improper conduct, we have the skills and experience to supply you with all the necessary steps in handling any alleged fraud. We can start with the initial forensic investigation utilising the latest and most efficient auditing tools and methodologies, report our results to senior management, liaise with police or other government officials, recover monies or assets through the courts, and provide fraud awareness training for management and employees to help prevent reoccurrences.
If a business suspects an employee (or even a supplier) of committing financial fraud or acting dishonestly, we have the skills and experience to assist you in confidence every step of the way. We are able to perform skilful forensic investigations and, if evidence of significant fraud is uncovered, we can recommend appropriate commercial and legal strategies to recover missing cash or other property.
It is well established that a person who obtains money by deceit is liable to repay it. We can assist you in negotiation with alleged wrongdoers to recover all proven losses, or if such a strategy breaks down, we can help you prosecute alleged wrongdoers in the civil courts to help recover stolen property wherever possible, to help you obtain damages from the alleged fraudulent person, or both. (Go directly to our Litigation page, or use the menu above.)
We also have the experience and the skills to make appropriate and cost-effective recommendations to help you strengthen your internal controls to help you manage the risk of fraud, and to greatly reduce the probability of future losses through fraud.
SUSPECTED FRAUD
For cases of suspected fraud, we can provide forensic audit and analytical services to investigate irregular or questionable financial transactions to determine if they are fraudulent. We are able to analyse large amounts of raw electronic financial data from any computerised accounting system. Such analysis enables us to detect the indicators of fraud, to uncover the fraudulent transactions, to reconstruct the trail of deception used by the alleged offender, and finally to support a claim of financial fraud.
If the transactions are found to be fraudulent, we can assess the full extent of the misappropriation and in so doing quantify the losses. This frequently involves the assessment of accounting and internal control systems, examination and analysis of the financial data, and the review of accounts presentation.
We also provide our clients with an evidence package which can be utilised in a civil action to recover damages, or by police and prosecutors should the matter proceed to the criminal courts.
Our fees for acting for you in any legal matter are exceptionally reasonable. We recommend that you look at our fees and prices before choosing a lawyer. Our fees can usually be based on the scales of cost made under various rules of court, or remuneration orders made under statutory authority, or we can use a very reasonable hourly rate, or a highly competitive fixed fee. We will explain the options to you and, with our help, you can choose the method that will work best for you. Our choice of billing methods can give you the most cost-effective outcome in your matter. We invite you to look at our fees for service page to learn more about our billing methods
Contact ALFA Lawyers today on 03 9823 1468, to discuss your enquiry with an experienced lawyer.
