Services & Costs
About us
Brigid Justice was established by and for women survivors of domestic violence. We are a charity and social enterprise and provide legal services at substantially lower cost. Our vision is that every Australian woman who has suffered abuse has access to professional legal advice and representation.
Our expertise is in family law and domestic violence, with most of our client’s matters being litigated (in court). We also assist our clients in advocating with police, and in pursuing civil damages claims against perpetrators.
Eligibility
Brigid Justice services can be used by women who:
- have suffered controlling or abusive behaviours (at any point)
- have an income under $160,000 and cannot access Legal Aid
- are able to pay legal fees or obtain litigation funding
Services
Family Law
- Financial/property settlements
- Children / Parenting
Spousal maintenance
- Recovery orders – children
- Child support agreements
- Return of property
- Ouster / sole occupation of the family home orders
- Divorce
Civil actions for damages against perpetrators
Sue your ex for damages
- Property damage
- Personal injury – physical and psychological
- Other civil offences such as trespass, breach of privacy, deprivation of liberty.
Legal action for defamation and breach of privacy
- Defamation (e.g. from defamatory social media posts)
- Revenge porn / distributing intimate images of you
- Surveillance and spying on you (including cyber stalking)
Protection/restraining orders (ADVO; IVO; FVO; DVO) – for existing clients
- Advice and support for you in getting a protection order / reporting breaches;
- Legal Help if your ex has taken out a protection order against you / you’ve been charged with DV offences;
- Advocacy with the Police.
Fees
You will be provided with a full costs estimate and disclosure if you engage our services.
Our fees for a lawyer are on a sliding scale depending on income and assets:
Financial Justice on Separation Program: $253/hour (incl GST) net asset pool excluding <$1M; income <$100k
- $297/hour (incl GST) base rate
- $385/hour (incl GST) asset pool $1.5M to $2.5M
- $450/hour (incl GST) asset pool $2.5M to $4M
- $550/hour (incl GST) asset pool $4M+
There are many options to assist with paying legal fees, including litigation funding, no interest loans through charities, and access to our charitable litigation funds (for eligible clients).
Our clients can expect to pay at least $5,000, an average of $30,000 if they end up in Court (most of our matters), to over $80,000 (including a barrister) if the matter goes to a final hearing (about 15% of our matters).
Why $10,000 up front?
Yes, we do ask most new clients (who do not have litigation funding) to pay $5,000 o $10,000 into our trust account. This amount is generally what it costs for settlement negotiations and pre-action legal tasks (financial disclosure, mediation etc), and then preparing your initial Court documents (noting if your ex-partner was abusive, there is a very high likelihood you will end up in Court). As we run on very tight margins so we are unable to ‘carry’ matters to settlement.
There are a number of options for $10,000 together – which you can discuss with a solicitor in your free chat. Some matters require a smaller deposit, but if you are in Court or likely to be then $10,000 is needed.
A bit more about us
More affordable
Legal costs can be incredibly expensive, and too often the choice for victims of abuse is pay huge legal fees or forget about their legal and property rights. Legal Aid is mostly unavailable for property settlements, and in parenting matters only to women on very low incomes.
We often hear stories where fear of high legal costs has stopped a woman from seeking legal advice and representation, or where she has accepted an unsafe parenting arrangement or a bad property settlement, potentially losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Through our charitable structure we are able to offer substantially lower cost legal services (noting private lawyers charge $450 to $880/hour). Most of our clients end up paying around half what they would pay a full cost private lawyer.
Our legal services include everything family law related. We also assist with protection/restraining orders (ADVO, FVOs etc) and victim’s advocacy with the Police. We can take action against abusers to return your money, property or pets, or pay for damaged property, and, where possible, to compensate you for injuries, defamation, trespass, and invasion of privacy.
Misidentification is a big problem – where Police charge the victim of abuse. Police can also be slow to act to protect victims. We provide advocacy for our clients with the Police, and criminal representation if needed.