New client form

What happens after you engage us

The sequence is the same for most matters, and most of it happens within the first few days.

1. We run a conflict check. If we already act for someone on the other side, we tell you and decline the retainer.
2. We send you a costs agreement and costs disclosure, setting out the fee, what it covers, what it does not, and the payment terms.
3. You sign and return it, and pay the deposit if one applies.
4. We complete your identity verification.
5. We file a notice of appearance or otherwise tell the court, the police prosecutions unit or the other side's solicitor that we act for you.
6. We request the material: the QP9 and brief of evidence in a criminal or traffic matter, the traffic history, the disclosure package, or the contract and correspondence in a commercial matter.
7. We give you advice on the material once it arrives, and a plan for the next court event.

The single biggest cause of delay at this stage is a costs agreement sitting unsigned. Nothing formal can start until it is back with us.

Identity verification

Every client is identified before we act. It protects you as much as it protects us, because the person authorising work on a file has to be the person the file belongs to.

• For most matters, photo identification is enough. A current Australian driver licence or passport, and a second document showing your current address.
• For a conveyance or a transaction dealt with electronically, we carry out verification of identity to the standard set out in the Land Title Practice Manual, which is a face to face check against original documents.
• For property, company, trust and financing work, legal practices have been subject to customer due diligence obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) since 1 July 2026. That means we verify identity, and sometimes source of funds, before the work proceeds.
• If you are instructing us on behalf of a company, we also need proof of your authority to do so, and details of the company and its beneficial owners.
• If someone else is paying your fees, we need to identify them too, and to confirm in writing who our client is. Our duty runs to you, not to the person paying.

Criminal defence and family law dispute work generally sits outside the statutory customer due diligence regime, but we still identify you. There is no exemption from knowing who your client is.

Your costs agreement

The costs agreement is the money document. Read it before you sign it, and ask about anything that is unclear. It is meant to be in plain language, and if it is not, that is our problem to fix.

It sets out the fee for the defined stage of work, what is included, what is charged separately as a disbursement, the billing intervals, any interest on overdue accounts, your right to request an itemised bill and to seek a costs assessment, and who to contact about costs. If your matter is likely to cost more than $3,000 excluding GST, all of that is required by section 308 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld).

You can negotiate a costs agreement. Most people do not realise that, and the law specifically requires it to be disclosed to you as a right. If the scope changes during the matter, section 315 requires us to tell you in writing as soon as reasonably practicable, and we will give you the new figure before the extra work is done.

A full explanation of how we price work is on the fixed fees page, including what a fee does not cover and why.

Documents, and how to send them

Send everything you have, early, even if you think it is unhelpful. A document that hurts is far less damaging when we have seen it first.

• Court documents: notice to appear, bail undertaking, complaint and summons, any order already made.
• Correspondence: letters or emails from police, a prosecutor, a government department, an insurer or the other side.
• Photographs, screenshots and messages, exported in full rather than cropped. Partial threads are worse than none.
• For traffic matters, your traffic history from Transport and Main Roads.
• For family matters, payslips, tax returns, superannuation statements, bank and loan statements, and any existing agreement or order.
• For commercial and property matters, the contract, the disclosure documents, and the correspondence trail.

Email scanned copies or clear photographs to admin@twclawyers.com.au with your name and the matter in the subject line, or drop originals at either office. Keep your originals. We work from copies unless a document has to be filed, and we will tell you when that applies.

If a file is too large to email, tell us and we will send you a secure upload link rather than have you compress evidence into uselessness.

How we will communicate with you

One solicitor runs your file and you will know their name. You are not passed between people.

• Calls and emails are returned within one business day. If your solicitor is in court all day, someone else will tell you that rather than leaving you wondering.
• You get a written update after every court event, including what was said and what happens next.
• Advice that matters goes in writing. Advice given on the phone is confirmed by email, so there is a record of what you were told and when.
• You will be told the date, time and courtroom of every listing, and what you need to do on the day.
• Tell us straight away if your phone number, email or address changes. Missing a listing because a notice went to an old address is a preventable disaster.

If something is going badly, you will hear it from us early and plainly. The point of hiring a lawyer is to know where you stand, not to be reassured.