Test case litigation program

Costs covered by the deed

If your client decides to accept the offer by executing and returning the deed, our funding contact officer will contact you or their legal representative to discuss the funding arrangements.

The deed will specify the rates that we will reimburse your client's costs for the members of their legal team. It will also detail the basis for reimbursing the cost of disbursements.

The deed generally offers funding for reasonable costs incurred at the approved stage of litigation on a solicitor-client basis, subject to certain limits. We will only provide funding for legal teams of a size that is reasonable for the complexity of the case.

It is recommended that your client gets independent legal advice before responding to our offer or signing the test case funding deed.

Costs calculated under the deed are generally higher than costs calculated on a 'party/party' basis under the rules of the Federal Court. However, the rates specified in the deed for solicitors and counsel may be less than the commercial rates they charge. As we will only reimburse the amounts specified in the deed, your client may need to pay the balance of their legal advisers' costs.

Subject to the terms and conditions of the deed, your client can be reimbursed for:

solicitor's fees
counsel's fees
disbursements
non-legal costs in some situations.

The deed will require your client's legal advisers to submit a detailed account for each item of work, including the hourly or daily rate charged. Disbursements must also be itemised clearly, in the same way as a bill of costs submitted in taxable form.

We generally ask an independent cost consultant to review invoices if it is not clear that we should reimburse the costs. Your client should make sure that all invoices submitted meet the requirements set out in the deed to avoid delays in payment.

Sections within Test case funding deed

Last Modified: Friday, 10 May 2013