What a Fixed-Price Strategy Session Actually Covers

A fixed-price strategy session is sixty minutes with a lawyer, at one price you know before you book, and a written strategy sent to you within 48 hours. You get triage, a realistic range of outcomes, and a plan. You do not get letters sent, documents drafted, or anyone acting for you. That part is quoted separately, per matter.

The thing men actually want to know is "what is this going to cost me"

Nobody rings a family lawyer because they are curious.

They ring because something has gone sideways at home and the next move feels like stepping onto ice. And the single question sitting under every other question is the one most men are too proud to lead with: what is this going to cost, and will it end up swallowing the house.

Here is the truth: the reason that question feels unanswerable is that most firms genuinely cannot answer it on day one. They do not know your asset pool, your ex's position, whether there is a safety issue, whether you are three weeks from a court date or three years from any dispute at all. So they quote you an hourly rate, which is not a price. It is a meter.

The stakes of not getting an answer are that you do nothing. You sit on it for six months, the status quo hardens around whatever arrangement happened by accident, and your options narrow while you wait for certainty that was never coming.

So start with the one piece you can price: the session itself. One conversation, one agreed amount, no meter running.

Translation: you cannot price the whole war before you have looked at the map. You can absolutely price the map.

What the sixty minutes is actually for

It is not a sales pitch. It is triage.

Before anything else, there is a conflict check. That means confirming the firm has not already spoken to your ex or picked up a duty of confidentiality to her somewhere along the line. It is unglamorous and it takes two minutes, and it exists so nobody is compromised later.

Then the session runs in roughly this order.

Risk first. Is anyone unsafe. Is there family violence in either direction. Are the kids exposed to anything. Is money moving out of accounts right now. Is there a property about to settle without your name on anything. If any of those are live, the rest of the agenda gets parked and we deal with the thing that is on fire. Safety and asset dissipation do not wait for a tidy meeting plan.

Then the honest range. Not a promise, a range. Under the property provisions as they now stand in the Act, a court identifies and values the pool, assesses contributions (financial, non-financial, homemaking and parenting), assesses future needs, then asks whether the order is just and equitable overall. A lawyer who has run that four-step exercise for years can tell you roughly where your facts sit. The answer is a band, not a number, and anyone handing you a guaranteed percentage in the first hour is selling you something. More on how property is actually divided.

Then parenting, properly. This is where most sessions include a reality check men do not enjoy. Since 6 May 2024 there is no presumption of equal shared parental responsibility and no automatic step where the court must consider equal time. The focus is six best interests factors, led by safety, then the child's views, their needs, each parent's capacity to meet them, and the benefit of a relationship with both parents where it is safe. Equal time can absolutely be the outcome. It is not an entitlement you walk in holding. The parenting work starts from what you can evidence about your actual involvement, not from what you think you are owed.

Then the route. Negotiation, Family Dispute Resolution, mediation, consent orders, or court. For most parenting applications you need to attempt Family Dispute Resolution and get a section 60I certificate first, with limited exceptions including family violence and urgency. Knowing which lane you are in changes everything about cost.

Translation: the hour is spent working out what can hurt you, what you are realistically looking at, and which door to walk through first.

The written plan is the part you are actually buying

A conversation evaporates. Paper does not.

Within 48 hours of the session you get a written strategy. That matters for a reason that has nothing to do with service standards and everything to do with your head. You will sit in that meeting with your fight-or-flight wiring running hot, and in that state the human brain retains roughly a third of what it hears. Men walk out of legal meetings certain they understood everything and ring back four days later unable to repeat a single step.

The written plan is your defence against that. It is the thing you read at 11pm when the house is quiet and your brain has stopped shouting. It is what you check your next move against before you send a message you cannot unsend.

A suggestion worth taking: do not make a single decision in the 48 hours before the plan lands unless something is urgent. Let the paper catch up to the conversation.

Translation: you are not buying an hour of talking. You are buying a document you can still use in six weeks.

What it does not cover, said plainly

This is where firms get vague. We will not.

A strategy session does not include ongoing representation. No notice of address for service goes on a court file. No letter goes to your ex or her lawyer. No phone call is made on your behalf. Nothing gets drafted: not consent orders, not a binding financial agreement, not an initiating application. No forensic accountant, no business valuation, no superannuation valuation.

It is advice, triage and a plan. That is the deal, and it is the whole deal.

The reason to spell this out is that unclear scope is how costs blow up. A man thinks the first meeting bought him a lawyer. Two weeks later he has been emailing questions, phone calls have been taken, and an invoice turns up that he never agreed to. That is not sharp practice so much as a scope nobody wrote down.

Translation: know exactly where the line is, because every dollar of surprise in legal costs lives on the wrong side of it.

How this differs from the open-cheque model

The traditional model is simple: a rate, a six-minute billing unit, and a meter that runs every time you pick up the phone.

It is not evil. For genuinely unpredictable matters, time-based billing is sometimes the only honest way to charge. The problem is behavioural. When every call costs, you stop calling. You guess instead of asking. You hold back the awkward fact about the cash job or the loan from your parents because you do not want to pay to confess it. And the awkward fact is usually the one that decides your matter.

Forge is not a fixed-fee firm and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The strategy session is the one item with a price set up front. Everything after it gets quoted for your matter, on your facts, in writing, before you sign anything. If the scope changes, the quote gets revisited and you hear about it before the work happens, not after.

There is also a pay at the end option for property matters, where eligible, so the cost of getting proper advice does not depend on what is in your account the week you separate.

A suggested move: before you engage anyone, ask for the scope and the price in writing, and ask what specifically would make that price change. If the answer is a shrug, that tells you plenty. We have written elsewhere about the Gunslinger Lawyer, the one who promises to go in hard and bills you for every bullet.

Translation: a lawyer who will not put the scope in writing has not thought about your costs. They have thought about theirs.

So how much does a family lawyer cost in Australia

Honest answer: it depends on which road you end up on, and the road is partly your choice.

A matter settled by negotiation and documented in consent orders costs a fraction of one that runs to a final hearing. The same assets, the same kids, the same facts, and a difference in total cost that is measured in multiples. What drives the number is not the hourly rate on the website. It is duration, conflict, disclosure fights, and how many times positions change.

That is why the first hour is worth doing properly. The strategy session is where you find out whether your matter is a three-month paperwork exercise or a genuine dispute, and what you can do in the next fortnight to keep it in the cheaper lane.

There is also a clock you need to know about. If you are married, property and spousal maintenance proceedings generally must start within 12 months of a divorce order taking effect. If you were in a de facto relationship, it is generally two years from separation. Going outside those windows needs the court's permission and proof of hardship, which is expensive and uncertain. Run your dates through the property settlement time limit calculator and the divorce date calculator before you decide you have time to think about it.

Translation: the cheapest family law matter is the one where you got clear advice early and stopped making expensive guesses.

What to bring

Come with facts, not feelings. The feelings are fair enough, they just do not change the maths.

A short list that makes the sixty minutes worth double:

• Date of marriage, date of cohabitation, date of separation, date of divorce if there is one.
• A rough asset and liability list: house, mortgage balance, cars, savings, debts, credit cards.
• Superannuation balances for both of you, as best you know them.
• Last two payslips and last tax return for each of you if you can get them.
• Any business, trust or company you are involved in, even loosely.
• The children's ages, school, and the care arrangement as it actually runs week to week, not as it was agreed.
• Any court documents, protection order applications, or correspondence from her lawyer.
• Your three real questions, written down.

If there is family violence in the picture, in either direction, say so in the first five minutes. It changes the legal analysis, it changes urgency, and it is now expressly relevant to property as well, including economic and financial abuse. That is not a conversation to save for later. Here is more on how family violence intersects with your matter.

And if your head is in a bad place, call MensLine on 1300 78 99 78 or Lifeline on 13 11 14. Separation is one of the hardest things a man goes through and there is nothing weak about ringing a number.

Translation: bring the paperwork you are avoiding. It is always the file that decides the outcome.

Book it, then do the homework

Most men wait too long because they are waiting to feel ready. Ready is not coming.

Book the session, spend an hour pulling the documents above into one folder, write your three questions, and turn up. Sixty minutes, one agreed price, a written plan in 48 hours. Then you decide what, if anything, happens next, with a quote in front of you rather than a meter behind you.

Start with the contact page and pick a time. The uncertainty is costing you more than the session does.

FAQ

How much does a family lawyer cost in Australia?

It depends almost entirely on whether your matter settles by agreement or runs through court, which can mean a difference of multiples on the same facts. The honest answer any lawyer can give on day one is a range, not a number, which is why the session itself is priced up front and the rest is quoted per matter in writing.

Is the strategy session price the whole cost of my divorce?

No. It covers the sixty-minute session and the written strategy that follows within 48 hours. Any work after that, such as negotiation, documents or court, is quoted separately before it starts and before you sign anything.

Can I just get advice without hiring a lawyer for the whole thing?

Yes. Plenty of men take the session, take the written plan, and run their own negotiation from there. You are not signing up for representation by booking a conversation.

Do I get 50/50 time with my kids?

There is no presumption of equal time in Australian law. Since May 2024 the court looks at six best interests factors, starting with safety. Equal time happens in plenty of matters, but it is an outcome based on your circumstances, not an entitlement you start with.

What if I cannot afford legal fees right now?

Say so in the session. For eligible property matters there is a pay at the end option, and part of the plan is matching the approach to what you can actually fund.

How long do I have to sort out property?

Generally 12 months from the date a divorce order takes effect if you were married, or two years from separation if you were de facto. Outside those windows you need the court's permission and have to prove hardship, so check your dates early with the time limit calculator.