How We Charge.

No Win No Fee means you are not required to pay your lawyer’s professional fees if your case is unsuccessful. In Queensland, this arrangement is formally documented in a Conditional Costs Agreement, which must set out when fees become payable and how they are calculated.

At Gain Lawyers, we go above and beyond ‘No Win No Fee’ with better fee arrangements, low costings, and our Low Fee Promise. 

At Gain Lawyers, if you’re personal injury claim is not successful (ie. if you do not settle or win your claim), we write off all fees incurred by our firm, as well as all evidence costs and outlays that we paid on your behalf - so you are not charged at all. 

Unlike most other firms, we refuse to charge 20-30% increases to our fees for “care and consideration” and/or additional “25% uplift fees” at the end simply for winning your claim. 
We created Gain Lawyers to ensure that injured people had access to industry leading expertise without the onerous price tag or nasty cost surprises.

In a genuine No Win No Fee arrangement, you do not pay your lawyer’s professional fees until your claim is finalised and successful. Some firms still require you to fund your own disbursements, such as medical reports, in advance. Others direct you to take out high interest personal loans so that you must repay the full cost of all the evidence plus all the extra high interest, from your compensation funds at the end. 

At Gain lawyers, you do not have to pay any of our fees along the way until your claim is successful.  We also cover all of the evidence costs, disbursements and outlays for you during your claim.  If your claim is successful, your legal fees and disbursements will be deducted from your settlement funds. In many types of claim (and depending on its value), the insurer will be required to pay a substantial contribution towards your total costs known as “standard costs”. This typically includes reimbursement of our disbursement costs carried on your behalf and a portion of your remaining legal fees. 

If your claim is unsuccessful for any reason, we write of our fees and disbursements and you are not charged at all.  

Hidden fees can occur when agreements include additional charges such as an “uplift fee” (up to 25% extra on their total legal fees) or an extra “care and consideration” loading on top. These should be disclosed in writing before you sign the agreement. 

Some law firm Cost Agreements charge you for big ‘blocks’ of costs (ie. fixed fees) for certain parts of your personal injury claim, falling back to hourly rates for work done in between those big blocks. This is known as a hybrid cost agreement. This can be problematic for the cases where the large blocks of fixed fee costs are charged at much higher rates than the fees would have been on hourly rates - and some firms get barristers to do most of the work for those blocks (who also charge you on top). 

It is imperative to read your Cost Agreement carefully to ensure you are not burned by hidden, additional or unexpected fees and costs. You are able to obtain independent financial advice before entering a Cost Agreement. We are also happy to review any proposed Cost Agreement from another firm to inform you as to whether it is fair and reasonable.

An uplift fee is an additional charge, up to a maximum of 25%, that some personal injury lawyers add to their total legal fees when a case is successful. It is intended to compensate for the risk of not being paid if the claim fails.

For example, if the base legal fees for work performed came to $60,000, the law firm would add another $15,000 (ie. 25% of $60,000) for a total of $75,000 in fees - simply for winning your case. 

That extra 25% (in this case, $15,000) is deducted from the injured person’s injury compensation funds. 

Some firms put a 25% uplift in every cost agreement. At Gain Lawyers, we banned the “25% uplift” to fees for our clients.  We also banned ‘care and consideration’ loading fees, additional or hidden costs, high-interest funding loans, or charging our clients interest on disbursements.

The 50-50 Rule is a legal safeguard under Section 347 of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) that applies to all personal injury claims in Queensland.

It’s designed to protect you from being left worse off financially after pursuing a legitimate claim - especially in cases where legal costs are high and compensation is relatively low (eg. due to liability issues).

The rule caps your lawyer’s fees (including GST) at no more than 50% of what remains from your settlement after refunds and disbursements are deducted.

In simple terms:

Maximum fees = (Settlement – Refunds – Disbursements) ÷ 2

This guarantees you’ll always receive at least as much “in hand” as your lawyer receives in fees, and ensures you’re never left with nothing, or in debt after legal costs.

The 50-50 Rule isn’t applied in most cases - it’s a safety net for rare situations where high legal legal fees might eat too much into your compensation. 

The 50-50 rule does not mean your lawyer charges this way in all cases. The rule doesn’t entitle lawyers to take 50% of your settlement. It’s a protective cap, not a target — designed entirely for your benefit.

Most compensation claims, if run correctly, have fees that do not come close to the 50-50 limit.

Yes. Some firms ask you to pay for your own disbursements and evidence costs which can be substantial. If you cannot pay them (which most people can’t), they direct you to take out a high-interest personal loan with a ‘loan litigation funder’ instead. 

The high interest loan funder then pays for your evidence upfront so you do not have to - however, when your claim settles, you must pay the full cost of your evidence and disbursements, plus all the high interest, from your settlement funds

For example, you may take out a loan of $15,000 to pay for all your evidence only to repay $20,000 or more when your claim resolves.  

Law firms who direct you to high interest loan funders are doing this to avoid having to pay for your evidence costs themselves during the claim (ie. for their own cashflow reasons). They don’t tell you that by saving themselves from paying your evidence costs upfront, you (and not them) are being saddled with all the high interest to repay. 

At Gain Lawyers, we refuse to direct our clients to take out high interest personal loans.

Instead, we fund all of your evidence and disbursement costs ourselves. We do not add interest to those costs over the course of your claim. If your claim succeeds, those costs become part of your legal bill (although they may be paid by the other side depending on the claim). If your claim does not succeed, we write off all legal fees and evidence costs and you are not charged. 

Legal fees are usually calculated based on the time spent on your case, multiplied by the lawyer’s hourly rate. This is documented in your costs agreement. In Queensland, percentage-based legal fees (or ‘contingency fees’) for personal injury matters are not permitted.

Legal fees can be calculated in a variety of ways in a personal injury claim:

• Hourly rate fee agreements (total costs will be your lawyer’s hourly rate multiplied by the time spent working on your file, plus the evidence/disbursement costs). 
• Court Scale Costs fee agreements (total costs will be independently assessed against the Supreme Court Scale to ascertain what your total fees should be, plus the evidence/disbursement costs). 
• Hybrid fix fee plus hourly rate agreements (blocks of fixed fees will be charged for major stages of your claim, dropping back to hourly rates in between - plus the evidence/disbursement costs)
• Fixed fee agreements (ie. a fixed lump sum for fees that will not change, plus the evidence/disbursement costs - for cases like TPD claims and for more certainty around costs)

At Gain Lawyers, we have hourly rate cost agreements and Court Scale Costs for personal injury claims and hourly rate or fixed fee cost agreements for TPD claims. 

Our cost agreements do not include any 25% uplift fees, additional care and consideration fees, expensive ‘block’ fees, or any other nasty surprises. 

In most WorkCover matters in Queensland, the insurer is not required to contribute anything towards an injured worker’s legal costs. The legislation does not require WorkCover to do so. This means that an injured worker’s legal fees and evidence costs will be paid from the total settlement funds without any contribution from Workcover towards the legal costs. 

For eg:

If a worker's compensation claim settles for $500,000 with legal costs of $70,000, and WorkCover does not contribute to legal costs, the claimant would receive $430,000 after those costs are deducted.

In more serious injury cases, where the injured worker was assigned a “20% impairment” or more in their Notice of Assessment, they will be entitled to claim “regulation costs” towards their total costs. This is usually not a substantial contribution towards costs but at least will pay for some of the disbursements and a small amount of legal fees. 

Unfortunately, injured workers in Queensland are not afforded the same cost contributions that people receive in motor vehicle accident claims, public liability claims, institutional abuse claims, or medical negligence claims - where most claims involve a substantial contribution towards the injured person’s costs from the other side (approx 30-60% of total costs).

In these types of claims, the insurer has to contribute towards a successful claimant’s total legal costs depending upon the date of injury and the value of the claim at resolution. 

“Upper” and “lower” cost thresholds apply that govern how much an insurer might be required to contribute. The thresholds go up incrementally every year. 

If a claim settles for between $0.00 and the “lower cost threshold”, the insurer does not have to contribute anything towards an injured person’s costs (ie. nil).

If the claim settles for a figure above the “lower cost threshold” but equal to, or less than, the “upper costs threshold”, the insurer only has to contribute “regulation costs” (usually approx $4,000 - $6,000 which goes up each year). 

If the claim settles for a figure above the “upper costs threshold” then the insurer usually must contribute “standard costs”, being approximately 30-60% of the total costs.

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Disbursements are outlays and out-of-pocket expenses paid to third parties during your claim to support or progress your claim (eg. medical assessments, expert witness fees, treatment reports, and court filing fees. 

We pay these upfront on your behalf so you don’t have to (without making you take out high interest personal loans to pay them yourself) and we only recoup these costs if your claim is successful. In many claims outside of WorkCover, the insurer often pays a contribution towards your total costs that covers most of your disbursements plus some of your remaining legal fees.

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You will receive a written costs agreement at the start of your case, setting out the hourly rates, fees, scale costs, estimated disbursements and outlays. As your case progresses, law firms are required to provide updated costs disclosure if the estimate changes significantly.

At Gain Lawyers, we believe in providing you with full transparency about costs all throughout your claim. You may contact us at any time to discuss or enquire about your costs. We also provide regular updates all throughout your claim so you know exactly where you stand.  

Long before any settlement negotiations, we provide you comprehensive written advice with respect to your prospects of success, the value of your claim (including the likely range of damages), your total costs (listed comprehensively with all fees and disbursements), estimates as to the insurer’s likely contribution towards your costs (if any), and all refunds you may be required to pay from your settlement.  

We will answer all your questions and ensure you are fully apprised about your costs and disbursements well before any settlement negotiations take place (with your full instructions).

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Yes. You can negotiate the hourly rate, fixed fee sum, type of cost agreement, or seek a cap on total fees, before signing the costs agreement. Once signed, the agreement is binding unless both parties agree to vary it.  However, you are welcome to discuss costs with us at any time. 

You are also permitted to obtain an independent cost assessment to ensure that your costs are fair and reasonable. 

Our number one priority is to maximise how much compensation you receive in your hand from your claim (ie. after all costs and refunds). We provide industry-leading expertise with low fees to ensure the best outcome for you.

If you lose your claim, we write off all of your legal fees and your evidence costs and you are not charged at all. If you go all the way through to a trial and your trial is unsuccessful, you do not have to pay our costs, but you may be ordered to pay some of the costs of the other side in successfully defending your claim. The important thing to remember here is that you decide whether the matter goes to court (as the injured claimant making the claim). In Queensland, there is a heavy emphasis on settling personal injury claims out of court wherever possible (including at compulsory settlement conferences, mediations, informal negotiations, and similar).  The vast majority of claims do not make it through to court. 

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Cost disclosure is important in personal injury claims. Too often, injured people hear about their firm’s unexpectedly high costs on the same day that are advised to settle their claim - when it is too late. 

At Gain Lawyers, we want all of our clients to fully understand all anticipated costs and disbursements, and all matters pertaining to costs, including:

• You have the right to negotiate on costs;
• You have the right to request an independent cost assessment;
• You have the right to know estimates costs, and revised estimates of costs (where applicable) all throughout your claim;
• You have the right to progress reports relating to costs;
• You have the right to contest costs;
• You have the right to know if an uplift is being charged and how (we don’t charge these at Gain - uplift fees and any additional fees are banned).