Fee Structure & Services
We regularly appear in the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia in various locations in NSW as well as interstate. We also represent clients in the Children’s Courts.
Our firm provides expert family law advice in the following areas.
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Parenting
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Family Law Property Settlements & Agreements;
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Divorce and Separation;
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Paternity Disputes;
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De facto relationships, including same-sex relationships;
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Child Support;
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Spousal maintenance;
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Interstate and International relocation; and
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Child Abduction.
If you are experiencing a family breakdown or separation, you need a confident, experienced and dedicated legal advisor.
Christina Lam & Associates pride ourselves in providing a premium service at a reasonable cost, and this commences from our initial appointment. An initial consultation with Christina Lam & Associates is charged at a fixed rate of $295.00 incl. GST.
Once you wish to formally engage our services, we will provide you with our Costs Agreement which sets out the terms upon which we would be prepared to act on your behalf. Incorporated in the Costs Agreement as terms are those matters referred to in the Cost Disclosure Statement which we will also provide to you, which discloses information about the cost of our legal services, your rights and other matters as required by the Legal Profession Uniform Law.
It is our usual practice to seek money on account of costs and, in particular, for disbursements to be incurred. Accordingly, we will need funds from you on account of our fees and disbursements to be incurred at a rate to be determined at our initial conference.
We will thereafter ask each client to enter into our Costs Agreement with us about fees.
Each month we will send you a monthly itemised account to keep you informed about your costs. We will provide you with a cost estimate of your likely costs for the court appearance before each court date, setting out your likely costs for the court appearance until the conclusion of your matter. This will enable you to make informed decisions as to how you seek to proceed with your matter.
Legal Aid Work
We are willing to undertake legal aid matters.
Christina Lam and Associates has been appointed to the Family Law Panel, the Independent Children’s Lawyer Panel and Care and Protection Panel of Legal Aid NSW.
Mediation
Before going to Court, mediation is often required unless there are exceptional circumstances in which it may not appropriate.
We can assist you undertake mediations in both parenting and property matters at a reasonable cost. Family Law Property Settlement Mediations can include the legal representatives but usually only if both parties are legally represented.
Mediation can be cost-effective to parties and assist you with avoiding hefty costs of litigation. Agreements reached through mediation are also more likely to meet the needs of the parties than any Court imposed resolution and therefore more likely to be in the best interests of all involved but especially any children of the parties.
Mediation is voluntary and for the most part confidential, subject to any mandatory reporting obligations. This enables parties to negotiate openly without being concerned about the impact on any future litigation.