Defining Litigation in Australia

Legal litigation means the practice of legal dispute resolution. Litigation takes place in all areas of state and federal law. The subject matter involved can vastly vary, and so too can the scope of the dispute. Whether it be breaches in corporate law or contract law, property disputes or personal injury claims, tax and financial matters, construction claims or an employment law claim, there are a lot of inquiries, inquests and investigations that fall under its purview.

What can litigation lawyers Perth do for you?

Just some of the things a litigation lawyer might help with include;

• Starting tribunal or court proceedings that include drafting, preparing and filling in documents and applications, pleadings, witness statements, claims, pleadings, affidavits and so on.
• Negotiating settlement terms of court proceedings and enforcing tribunal or court judgements such as recovering sums that have been awarded.
• Advising clients on strategies to avoid a dispute or resolve it.
• Advocating at tribunals or courts on the behalf of their clients.
• Negotiating for clients during disputes to avoid the need to go to court.

In Australia, the person advocating before the court does not have to be a lawyer or barrister, though those that are not, tend to be briefed by one beforehand.

Regulatory Compliance

The area that is really growing in legal litigation right now in Australia is regulatory compliance. With so many laws being enacted every year at federal and state levels, it becomes harder and harder to ensure compliance occurs. Lawyers are increasingly being required to do things like;

• Defend clients during prosecutions
• Advise clients in terms of their regulatory compliance in general
• Help with response or objections to penalty notices
• Help with response to investigations and inquiries that are regulatory in nature
• Settle claims with negotiations
• Assist in people observing orders and rulings, helping with compliance which might mean fine imposition, office disqualification, corrective action and so on

Working with regulators

Practitioners will work with a number of government agencies and prosecuting regulators including the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission), the AFP (Australian Federal Police), ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) and APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority). It can cover a diverse number of matters such as inside trading, foreign bribery issues, white-collar crime, company director duty breaches, price-fixing and more.

ADR (Alternative dispute resolution)

Litigation lawyers Perth will also include ADR or alternative dispute resolution. This means resolving disputes that are might fall outside of what you see traditionally at tribunal and courts, both federal and state levels. It includes different types of mediation, expert determination and arbitration. When there are such high costs and long delays when taking things through court proceedings, the idea with ADR is to have some issues resolved outside of it. It is important though that any litigation lawyer has a good understanding of all types of dispute resolution in order to use the right ones for their clients. The client’s issue and situation are going to impact what forum or resolution strategy would be attractive and work for them.