Clients
Our number one job is to protect our clients. We care about our clients and treat them with dignity, respect, understanding, empathy and compassion. We enjoy the uniqueness of people and having authentic relationships.
People usually come to us at a time when life is ‘changing’. Sometimes it’s an exciting change, and sometimes it's a difficult period of change where people need someone to walk through the changes alongside them.
We focus on helping people with legal issues when family relationships change; or if their has been a terrible accident or injury from negligence; or when there has been a death in the family and an estate needs to be administered. We understand that difficult circumstances can make people stressed. We will always be patient and understanding.
Our role is TO HELP people by providing quality, affordable legal services. We are here to problem solve; be the bridge; to walk alongside you; to help you get through to a future that is brighter and more comfortable.
We are committed to doing all we can so our clients feel understood and well treated. We want our clients to know we are walking alongside them and they come under our protection. We want our clients to be satisfied with their outcomes and to experience excellent care, service and results.
We will always be friendly, professional and will give the very best of ourselves; our experience, knowledge and skills, regardless of the difficulty or challenge.
We promise to do our very best to…
- be friendly, respectful, clear and professional at all times.
- always treat you with care and courtesy.
- use a polite manner, regardless of how we feel or how others are behaving.
- be optimistic and realistic.
- understand your situation and make sure you feel understood.
- be non-judgmental, give perspective, understand the details and see the bigger picture.
- show empathy and compassion.
- find solutions that are realistic and advantageous to you.
- give clear explanations, allow you to feel justified, and recognise and acknowledge your situation.
- communicate what the law is, recognise that while it might not be the most serious of legal issues, it is important to you and that is why you have come to see us.
- be efficient, prompt and clear and keep you informed about what is happening in your matter.
- proactively, sensibly and sensitively manage our communication with you and everyone we are helping, in order to be cost effective and efficient for you.
- be transparent and set good boundaries where necessary.
- see you promptly at appointment times and try not to keep you waiting.
- set aside enough time in appointments to be empathetic, obtain relevant information for your matter and to advise you.
- talk with you about managing our (yours too) time well.
- be available when you call and make sure you get to speak with someone assisting on your matter.
- make sure we know the schedule of the lawyer or paralegal who is responsible for your matter and connect you with them. If they are with someone else (or in a meeting, or at court) we will give them a detailed message and they will return your calls asap and always within 48 hours.
- respond to your emails in a timely manner. We treat emails as letters and often need time to fully consider things before we respond. Our lawyers and paralegals are not always online, as they spend a large part of their day seeing people, attending meetings or court and are on the phone a lot. If they are working for someone, and it requires concentrated attention, a few days may pass before they respond to an email. If there is something urgent in an email, we will respond promptly.
- remind you to send emails to your lawyer’s secretary or personal assistant (rather than your lawyer) as this ensures a response in the quickest possible time.
- give you realistic advice so you can have realistic expectations about how your matter is likely to resolve.
- provide cost effective solutions by being proactive in resolving your matter as soon as possible.
- use all available methods of dispute resolution to bring matters to their earliest resolution.
- work with you and be strategic in your matter, all the while taking the ‘whole picture’ into account in order to advise you well.
- provide quality and affordable legal services.
- discuss fees and payment with you at the outset and throughout your matter.
- be very clear about costs and payment terms.
- give you an accurate estimate of the likely costs of your matter early on and regular updates of actual costs incurred at various stages of your matter.
- HELP by giving you excellent care, service and results!