Family law · 19 October 2026
Most people hire a family lawyer at the worst point of their lives, and most never find out what that lawyer actually owes them. The rules are clearer than the profession tends to admit.
Most people hire a family lawyer at the worst point of their lives. They are separating, they are worried about their children, and they are frightened about money. They are rarely in a state to ask what the lawyer they are paying actually owes them.
So many of them never find out.
This is not an article about villains. Many family lawyers work hard inside a slow, overloaded court system. But a client who has been ignored for three weeks, or who opens a bill three times the estimate, is not helped by being told the system is hard. They are helped by knowing the rules their lawyer is bound by, and what they can do when those rules are not followed.
Under the conduct rules and the Legal Profession Uniform Law that apply to Victorian solicitors, your lawyer must:
If that is not happening, you can raise it in writing, ask for an itemised bill, get a second opinion, change lawyers, and complain to the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner (VLSB+C). The VLSB+C's service is free.
A matter that felt urgent in the first meeting can go quiet. Emails go unanswered. A junior lawyer you have never met starts signing the letters.
The Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules require a solicitor to give "clear and timely advice" so a client can understand the relevant legal issues and make informed choices about what happens next (rule 7.1). They also require a solicitor to deliver legal services competently, diligently and as promptly as reasonably possible (rule 4.1.3).
A lawyer is not required to answer every call the same day. But a client who cannot find out what is happening in their own case is not getting what the rules describe.
What to do: put your question in writing, ask for a reply by a specific date, and ask who else at the firm can answer if your lawyer is unavailable. A written trail matters if you later need to complain.
Costs blowouts are the complaint that turns a bad experience into a financial crisis.
Under the Legal Profession Uniform Law, a law practice must tell you in writing, when or as soon as practicable after you first give instructions, the basis on which you will be charged and an estimate of your total legal costs (section 174). If anything significant changes, the same duty applies again. There are small exceptions for very low-cost matters, which a family law matter will rarely be. Your costs must be no more than fair and reasonable in all the circumstances (section 172).
If a law practice fails to make the required disclosure, the consequences fall on the practice. Any costs agreement is void, you need not pay until the costs are assessed or a costs dispute is decided by the VLSB+C, and the practice cannot sue you for them until then (section 178). The rules made under the Uniform Law can modify this in some circumstances, so get advice on your own situation.
Family law adds a further layer. In family law proceedings, at least one day before every court event, your lawyer must give you a written costs notice showing your actual costs to date and the estimated costs up to and including each future court event. The notice is also filed with the court and served on the other side (rule 12.06 of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021). In property cases, your lawyer must also tell you your costs to date and the estimated cost of finishing the case whenever a settlement offer is made (rule 12.05).
If you have been to court and never seen a costs notice, ask for it.
What to do: ask in writing for an updated estimate of total costs to the end of the matter. You can also ask, free of charge, for a written report of the costs incurred so far (section 190). If the estimate has moved a long way and nobody told you, write down when you were last given a figure and what it was.
A one-line invoice for "professional services rendered" tells you nothing.
If you receive a lump sum bill, you can ask for an itemised bill that breaks the charge down by item of work. You must ask within 30 days after the bill becomes payable, and the firm must give it to you within 21 days (section 187).
The time limits for disputing a bill are short too. Under the Uniform Law, a costs dispute complaint generally has to be made within 60 days after the costs become payable or, if you asked for an itemised bill, within 30 days after the firm gives it to you (section 272). The VLSB+C publishes these as 30 days for itemised bills and 60 days for lump sum bills. We explain the limits and the dollar thresholds in our guide to disputing your lawyer's bill in Victoria.
What to do: request the itemised bill in writing as soon as a bill arrives that you cannot follow. Do not wait until you have decided whether to dispute it.
Going to court is expensive and slow, and a parenting dispute in court is hard on everyone in the family.
The conduct rules require a solicitor to inform the client about the reasonably available alternatives to a fully contested court case, unless the solicitor believes on reasonable grounds that the client already understands them well enough to make decisions about their best interests (rule 7.2).
Separately, in matters about children, a lawyer who advises or assists a person about a child under the parenting part of the Family Law Act must tell them they should regard the child's best interests as the paramount consideration, and encourage them to act in the child's best interests (section 60D).
A lawyer who sends aggressive letters, rejects reasonable offers without talking them through with you, or treats every point as a fight to be won may be acting on instructions. But you should be the one deciding that, with the options explained.
What to do: ask your lawyer directly what the alternatives to court are in your matter, what each would likely cost, and what they recommend and why. Ask for the answer in writing.
Family law runs to court timetables, and those timetables are often slow. A frequent frustration is a matter that sits untouched for months and is then rushed in the days before a deadline, with documents sent for signature overnight and no time to ask questions.
The rule requiring a solicitor to act "as promptly as reasonably possible" applies across the whole matter, not only in the week before a hearing.
What to do: ask for a written list of the next steps in your matter, the dates the court has set, and when your lawyer expects to need documents or instructions from you.
A solicitor must only accept and follow a client's lawful, proper and competent instructions (rule 8.1). It is your case, and the big decisions are yours.
What to do: if a proposal, a rejection of an offer or a court filing went out that you did not authorise, raise it in writing straight away and ask for an explanation. If it has added to your costs, keep a note of that too.
You can end your lawyer's engagement without giving a reason. It is best to do it in writing, and you remain responsible for the fair and reasonable cost of the work already done.
What makes leaving hard is usually the file. The conduct rules require a solicitor to give client documents to the client, or to another person the client authorises, as soon as reasonably possible when the client asks, unless there is an effective lien (rule 14). A lien is a right to hold documents until fees are paid. But where the documents are essential to current court proceedings and a new lawyer is acting, the old firm must hand them over if the new lawyer undertakes to hold them subject to the lien and arranges reasonable security for the unpaid costs (rule 15).
What to do: speak to the new lawyer first and let them arrange the transfer. Keep copies of the key documents you have been sent along the way, so a dispute about the file does not leave you without your own court papers.
Put your request in writing, give a reasonable date for a reply, and ask who else at the firm can help. The Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules require clear and timely advice and competent, diligent and prompt work. If the problem continues, you can raise it with the firm's principal, change lawyers or complain to the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner.
Yes. Under the Legal Profession Uniform Law, a law practice must disclose in writing the basis of its charges and an estimate of total legal costs at the start, and must tell you when there is a significant change. In family law proceedings, the court's rules also require your lawyer to give you a written costs notice at least one day before each court event.
If a law practice fails to make the required costs disclosure, any costs agreement is void, you are not required to pay until the costs have been assessed or a costs dispute has been decided, and the practice cannot sue for them until then. The rules can modify this in some circumstances, so get advice or contact the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner promptly, because the time limits for costs disputes are short.
Yes. You can end the engagement without giving a reason, though you remain responsible for the fair and reasonable cost of work already done. Where your documents are needed for current court proceedings, your new lawyer can arrange the transfer by undertaking to hold them subject to the old firm's lien and giving reasonable security for its unpaid fees.
Complaints about Victorian lawyers go to the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner. It deals with complaints about conduct and about legal costs, and its service is free. A costs dispute complaint generally must be made within 60 days after the costs become payable or, if you asked for an itemised bill, within 30 days after you receive it.