--- title: "Legal Fees & Pricing | Fixed Fees vs Hourly Rates | Astris Law" description: "Predictable legal costs for Australian businesses. Fixed fees, hourly with staged estimates and monthly retainers explained and how a single-lawyer model cuts wasted billable hours." lang: en-AU json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": [ "LegalService", "LocalBusiness" ], "@id": "https://www.astrislaw.com/#organization", "name": "Astris Law", "legalName": "Astris Law Pty Ltd", "alternateName": [ "Astrons General Counsel", "Phronesis Litigation", "HeadStart Counsel" ], "url": "https://www.astrislaw.com", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.astrislaw.com/android-chrome-512x512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 }, "image": "https://www.astrislaw.com/android-chrome-512x512.png", "description": "The Astris Law group gives directors and business owners the right legal capability for whatever their business needs, across corporate, disputes and regulatory. 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Those ranges describe standard versions of each engagement - multi-entity structures, contested negotiations and high-value or high-risk matters price above them, because the price follows the scope and what is at stake, not the document type. Litigation is priced in stages rather than as one number - District Court matters typically run $20,000–$80,000 in legal fees and Supreme Court matters $50,000–$200,000+. At Astris Law, work is quoted as a fixed fee in writing for its actual scope before work begins." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Are fixed fees always cheaper than hourly rates?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "No, and a firm that tells you otherwise is not being straight with you. A fixed fee is a price for a defined scope. If the matter is simpler than expected, the fixed fee can cost more than the same work billed hourly. What a fixed fee buys is certainty. You know the cost before you commit, and the lawyer carries the risk of the work taking longer. For defined-scope work such as contract reviews, company structuring and standard agreements, that certainty is usually worth more to a business than the chance of a marginally lower hourly bill. For genuinely open-ended work such as litigation, a staged estimate is the more honest structure than a fixed fee padded to cover the unknown." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Are you the cheapest commercial law firm in Brisbane?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "No, and we don't aim to be. Online providers sell templated documents at lower prices and for some matters that is the right buy. What we sell is senior judgment with price certainty: the lawyer who quotes the work does the work, the scope is in writing before we start and the number does not move unless the scope does. Cheap legal work that fails when tested is the most expensive kind. The contract that holds up in a dispute and the dispute strategy that recovers your costs are where legal spend earns its keep." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is the difference between a quote, an estimate and a costs agreement?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "A quote (or fixed fee) is a binding price for a defined scope of work. An estimate is a lawyer's genuine prediction of what the work will cost, but the final bill can differ if the matter develops. A costs agreement is the formal document required under s 309 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) for matters expected to exceed $3,000 plus GST. It sets out the basis of charging, an estimate of total costs and your rights, including the right to itemised bills and to a costs assessment. Whatever structure you agree, you should have it in writing before substantive work begins." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Why do larger firms cost more for the same work?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Mostly structure, not quality. Large firms run a leverage model: a partner supervises a team of salaried lawyers, and profitability depends on each timekeeper recording billable hours on your file. That model adds costs that have nothing to do with your outcome: multiple lawyers reading the same documents, internal conferences between team members, junior drafts rewritten by senior lawyers and handovers when staff rotate. It also carries higher overheads, recovered through hourly rates. A single-lawyer model removes those layers. One senior lawyer does the work, so you are not paying for the file to be read twice." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What happens if the scope of my matter changes?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "We tell you before the costs change, not after. If a fixed-fee matter expands beyond the agreed scope, for example a contract review turns into a negotiation or the other side raises new issues, we explain what has changed, give you a revised scope and price and let you decide before further work is done. Under ss 300 to 335 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld), lawyers are obliged to disclose significant changes to a costs estimate. We treat that as a minimum standard rather than the target." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How much will my dispute cost in total?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Any honest answer at the outset is a staged one, because the total depends on how the other side behaves. The court tier caps the claim value, not the legal spend, and a hard-fought matter in any court can cost several times a usual-course budget. What we commit to is a costed estimate for each stage, a decision point before the next stage begins and a settlement offer strategy designed to put the costs burden on the other side. For usual-course ranges by court and matter type, see our guide on how much a commercial lawyer costs in Brisbane." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Do you charge for an initial consultation?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes. Our legal strategy call is a paid, fixed-fee one-hour video conference with an experienced lawyer, and it is real legal advice you can act on. A free consultation is a short sales meeting where the advice is held back until you sign; ours is the opposite - you ask anything, you get advice you can act on in the session and many matters resolve within the hour. If further work is needed, you leave with a defined scope and price in writing before you commit to anything. The fee is confirmed when you schedule, so there are no surprises." } } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.astrislaw.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Pricing & Fees", "item": "https://www.astrislaw.com/pricing" } ] } ] --- [Skip to main content](#main-content) The Astris Law Group Astris Astris Law [Astrons Astrons General Counsel ](https://astrons.astrislaw.com)[Phronesis Phronesis Litigation ](https://phronesis.astrislaw.com)[HeadStart HeadStart Counsel ](https://headstartcounsel.astrislaw.com) [![Astris Law S Icon](/assets/astris-logo-icon-kBkGra_r.png)![Astris Law](/assets/astris-logo-full-wbEHTWR5.png)](/) [About](/about)[The Group](/philosophy)[Practice Areas](/practice-areas)[Articles](/articles)[Contact](/contact)[Start here](/contact) [Home](/)Pricing & Fees # Our Fee Philosophy: Predictable Legal Costs, Without the Big-Firm Team Legal fees have a deserved reputation for unpredictability. The cause is rarely dishonesty. It is structure. Most firms sell time, in six-minute units, recorded by as many lawyers as the firm can justifiably put on your file. The final bill is whatever that process produces. Astris Law is built differently. One senior lawyer runs your matter end to end, and wherever the scope of work can be defined, we price it before we start. This page explains how we charge, when fixed fees beat hourly rates and when they don't and why a single-lawyer model means every dollar you spend buys legal judgment, not firm structure. We are rarely the cheapest quote you will get. We are the one where the number means something. For market-wide figures, including hourly rates by seniority, typical fixed-fee ranges and litigation budgets across Brisbane firms, see our guide on [how much a commercial lawyer costs in Brisbane](/article/commercial-lawyer-cost-brisbane). ## Fixed Fees vs Hourly Rates: An Honest Comparison Neither structure is inherently fairer. They allocate risk differently. Under hourly billing, you carry the risk of the work taking longer than expected. Under a fixed fee, the lawyer carries it. The right structure depends on how well the work can be scoped at the outset. ### Hourly billing Transparent in one sense, you see what was done and how long it took, but unpredictable, because the total depends on how the matter unfolds and how many people touch the file. Hourly billing rewards time spent, not problems solved, and it puts the budget risk entirely on the client. It remains the right choice where the scope cannot be known in advance, contested litigation being the obvious example, provided it is paired with a realistic estimate, staged budgets and early warning when anything changes. ### Fixed fees A binding price for a defined scope, agreed before work begins. You can budget for it, compare it against the value of the work and approve it like any other business expense. The lawyer absorbs the risk of the work taking longer, which also creates the right incentive: efficiency benefits the lawyer rather than eroding their fee. Fixed fees suit defined-scope work: contract drafting and review, company and shareholder structuring, employment document suites, demand letters and standard commercial agreements. Most advisory work a business needs falls in this category. Our default is simple. **If the scope can be defined, we fix the price.** Where it cannot, we give a genuine estimate broken into stages, and we tell you before anything changes, not after. Both approaches are documented in a costs agreement as required by the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld). A warning on fixed fees in disputes. No lawyer can price a defended proceeding as one number on day one, because the cost depends on decisions the other side has not made yet. A flat quote for contested litigation is not transparency. It is a guess, padded to cover the unknown, and one of you will pay for the guess. What can be fixed is each stage, and that is what we do. ## The Single-Lawyer Model: Where Wasted Billable Hours Come From Large firms run a leverage model: a partner supervises a pyramid of salaried lawyers, and the firm's economics depend on each of them recording billable time on your matter. Much of that time is real work. Some of it is structural waste that exists only because of how the team is organised - and on an hourly model, you pay for all of it. The recurring categories of waste in a leveraged team: **Duplicated reading.** Every lawyer added to the matter bills time getting across the same background, correspondence and documents. **Internal conferences.** Team members briefing each other, in six-minute units, about work you have already paid for once. **The training subsidy.** Junior lawyers learning on your file, with their drafts then rewritten by the senior lawyer whose time you are also billed for. **Handovers.** When staff rotate, leave or are reassigned, the incoming lawyer re-reads the file at your expense. **Seniority mismatch.** Routine work billed at partner rates, or complex judgment calls attempted at junior rates and corrected later. A single-lawyer model eliminates these categories rather than discounting them. At Astris Law, the senior lawyer you meet on day one is the lawyer who drafts your documents, runs your negotiation and appears in your dispute. Nothing is handed over, so nothing is re-read. There are no internal meetings to bill, no junior drafts to rewrite and no pyramid to feed. The same continuity compounds over time: a lawyer who already knows your business does not bill you to relearn it at the start of every new matter. The honest limits matter too. A single lawyer cannot field a twelve-person deal team and is not the right fit for a $100 million transaction with simultaneous tax, competition and IP workstreams. Equally, if your matter is a templated document and price is your only criterion, an online fixed-fee provider may serve you well. Our clients engage us when the answer matters more than the document. For the legal work that owner-managed and SME businesses actually buy, contracts, structuring, employment, regulatory issues and commercial disputes, the leverage model adds cost without adding judgment. That work is what this firm is built for, across both [Astrons General Counsel](https://astrons.astrislaw.com) (commercial advisory) and our [dispute resolution and litigation practice](/practice/dispute-resolution-litigation). ## How We Price Work Three structures cover almost everything we do. We recommend the one that fits the work, and we put it in writing before we start. ### Fixed fees For defined-scope work: contract drafting and review, company formation and shareholder agreements, employment document suites, terms and conditions, demand letters. You approve a known price before work begins and the price does not move unless the scope does, in which case you decide before further costs are incurred. ### Hourly with staged estimates For litigation and open-ended matters where a fixed price would just be a padded guess. We estimate stage by stage (demand, pleadings, disclosure, mediation, trial) so you decide at each gate. Paired with a deliberate settlement offer strategy, staging also builds pressure to resolve, because under Queensland costs rules a party who unreasonably refuses a good offer can end up paying your costs. See our guide to [recovering legal costs in Queensland courts](/article/recovering-legal-costs-queensland-federal-courts-qcat). [ ![Astrons General Counsel](/assets/astrons-logo-EAT66Qy0.png) ### Monthly retainer Explore Astrons General Counsel For businesses with recurring legal needs. Typically a fixed monthly fee covering regular advisory work, contract reviews, employment questions, compliance and negotiations, scoped to how your business actually uses legal support, with a lawyer who already knows your business. It is the outsourced alternative to hiring in-house, delivered through our Astrons General Counsel practice. ](/astrons-general-counsel) ## What Business Legal Work Costs in Brisbane: Indicative Ranges These are Brisbane market ranges for common defined-scope work, drawn from our full guide to [what a commercial (or business) lawyer costs in Brisbane](/article/commercial-lawyer-cost-brisbane). They are what the market charges for standard versions of each engagement, not a quote and not a cap: multi-entity structures, contested negotiations and high-value or high-risk matters price above these ranges, because the price follows the scope and what is at stake. Your matter gets a written fixed price for its actual scope before work begins. Work Brisbane market range (standard scope) Contract review $750–$2,500 Commercial lease review $1,500–$3,500 Simple terms and conditions $2,000–$4,000 Employment contract suite $2,500–$10,000 Company incorporation with shareholder agreement $3,500–$8,000 Ranges reflect the standard version of each engagement. Multiple entities or share classes, bespoke drafting, contested negotiation and high-value or high-risk subject matter all take work above these ranges. Hourly rates in the Brisbane market run from $250–$400 for a junior solicitor to $600–$880 for a partner. Litigation is priced in stages rather than as a single figure: District Court matters typically cost $20,000–$80,000 in legal fees and Supreme Court matters $50,000–$200,000+, which is why we cost each stage with a decision gate before the next - see [the commercial litigation roadmap](/situation/commercial-litigation-roadmap) for how the stages fit together. ## Your Rights on Legal Costs in Queensland Whatever firm you engage, the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) gives you enforceable rights on costs. Under s 308, your lawyer must disclose in writing how fees will be calculated and provide an estimate of total costs. For matters expected to exceed $3,000 plus GST, s 309 requires a costs agreement. You are entitled to itemised bills, to be told when an estimate changes significantly and to apply for an independent costs assessment if you believe you have been overcharged. We treat these disclosure obligations as the floor, not the standard. The test we apply to our own pricing is simpler: you should never open one of our invoices and be surprised by it. ## Frequently Asked Questions About Legal Fees ### How much does a business lawyer cost in Brisbane? ### Are fixed fees always cheaper than hourly rates? ### Are you the cheapest commercial law firm in Brisbane? ### What is the difference between a quote, an estimate and a costs agreement? ### Why do larger firms cost more for the same work? ### What happens if the scope of my matter changes? ### How much will my dispute cost in total? ### Do you charge for an initial consultation? ## Related Reading [The Legal Strategy Call: How It Works ](/consultation)[How Much Does a Commercial Lawyer Cost in Brisbane? ](/article/commercial-lawyer-cost-brisbane)[Outsourced General Counsel in Australia ](/article/outsourced-general-counsel-australia)[Recovering Legal Costs in Queensland Courts ](/article/recovering-legal-costs-queensland-federal-courts-qcat)[Astrons General Counsel ](https://astrons.astrislaw.com)[Phronesis: Litigation Intelligence ](https://phronesis.astrislaw.com) Written by [Jamie Nuich](/team), Legal Practitioner Director of Astris Law ## Want a price before you commit? That's how it should work. Tell us about your matter and we'll give you a defined scope and a clear price. Fixed where it can be fixed, staged where it can't. [(07) 3519 5616](tel:+61735195616)[Send Enquiry](/contact) [![Astris Law S Icon](/assets/astris-logo-icon-kBkGra_r.png)![Astris Law](/assets/astris-logo-full-wbEHTWR5.png)](/) You don't need more lawyers. 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