M + K lawyers drafted two employment contracts for me. Being a small business owner, I wanted to know the cost upfront of developing 2 employment contracts - one for full-time/part-time employees and one for casual employees. I was provide a fee estimate of $2000 (plus GST) for M + K Lawyers to do this - $1500 for the full-time/part-time and $500 for the casual contract. This quote was based on the work being completed by their most junior member of staff with the lowest hourly rate of $325 (+GST) per hour, and checked over by a senior partner at the hourly rate of $550 (+GST) per hour.

The work on the full-time/part-time contract was carried out as per the estimate. However, with the casual contract, it turned out that the junior lawyer neglected to mention to me that she had exceeded the estimate number of hours on the job, and the cost had increased from $500 to $1000. But as a 'good will gesture' she offered to 'discount' the bill to $750. I expressed that I didn't believe this was good business practice, seeing as she had promised to inform me in advance if the fees were going to exceed our agreed amount.

However, the matter was forwarded onto the senior partner to manage, who of course argued the reasonableness of the fees. And of course why would I bother arguing my case with a lawyer - That's going to be a losing battle for sure!!

So there you go - Sure, they are qualified and intelligent and have a right to charge exorbitant fees, but I believe that common courtesy should still prevail and they should realise that not everyone earns $500 an hour and not everyone thinks that an extra $500 can simply be added on their invoice and justified without prior agreement.

Needless to say, they've depleted my trust for their firm, and I'm now searching on WOMO for an alternative firm to work with.

Approximate cost: $2000