We are in the wrong game.

[red750]

Send your kids to law school.

 

Solicitors charge $400 - $600  --   PER HOUR.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yep.. Over here, the supply of interns is so low, the "better" firms are offering up to £250K (at the moment, almost $440K) starting salaries. Needless to say, my daughter is busting a gut to get into a good law school.

 

We pay up to £25k/day for a senior partner's services; a junior will cost us about £5k/day at the moment.

[rgmwa]

So a junior costs about $1,100 per hour for an 8 hour day! That's highway robbery!

Makes our junior engineers relatively cheap at about $170 per hour, and even that's expensive when you're the one paying.

Hope the lawyers aren't charging for the time they spend making coffee and discussing the weekend sport.

 

[red750]

Estimate to process my wifes estate -$7,000. And counting.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I should have mentioned the numbers I quoted were for top tier law firms with specialists in banking and finance law. Every time I go to their offices (which is not often), I can see where the money goes!

 

I guess it is about £200/hour foir a high street firm, although my conveyaning laywer would have charged £600/hr for a consumer issue (at which point, I decided to write the demand letter myself).

 

@red750 - unless there's some complexity on the probate, the process is failry simple. Advertisement in The Age advising of the estate and seeking any claims; after 28 days, issue of probate by the executor of the will. I don't know Vic succession law, but if she passed intestate, the law is usually fairly simple - they usually look for financially dependent, then for the closest relative. Just remember, the state trustees were recently in the news for some miisconduct.

 

Here is a firm to try - but buyer beware: https://www.probateaustralia.com.au/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5ZSWBhCVARIsALERCvwwZz6swQ4WkupqwMDyczUvv5GH-4UldbdtLNMu_fZqHk04mr2f_j8aAnefEALw_wcB

 

A quick search of google to find alternates to get quotes.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

Don't count on those salaries too much....  there are lots of unemployed law graduates out there. Engineers too. I have a mate with a law degree who in real life is a caregiver.

My recommendation is medicine if you want a lot of money when you finally get a job. ( the word finally is on account of the number of years to train.)

There is a risk that the government will come to its senses and allow nurses etc ( with a one year extra training) to prescribe. I thought they should do this 50 years ago but I was wrong then and expect to be wrong again.

Take cataract surgeons....  Fred Hollows trained smart school-leaving Ethiopians to do this operation. I'm surer they didn't have to learn about feet etc as well. So a cataract operation costs say $50 in Ethiopia and maybe $5000 in Australia.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I forgot to add to my above post, that I was assuming the quotes were the cost of the probate itself.. there will be the other charges of course, eg conveyancing, possibly stamp duty, etc.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[Jerry_Atrick]

2 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Don't count on those salaries too much....  there are lots of unemployed law graduates out there. Engineers too. I have a mate with a law degree who in real life is a caregiver.

My recommendation is medicine if you want a lot of money when you finally get a job. ( the word finally is on account of the number of years to train.)

There is a risk that the government will come to its senses and allow nurses etc ( with a one year extra training) to prescribe. I thought they should do this 50 years ago but I was wrong then and expect to be wrong again.

Take cataract surgeons....  Fred Hollows trained smart school-leaving Ethiopians to do this operation. I'm surer they didn't have to learn about feet etc as well. So a cataract operation costs say $50 in Ethiopia and maybe $5000 in Australia.

I don't know about Aus, but over here, there is a death of suitable qualified interns (which here, means in addition to graduating, passing a Legal Professional Course, or an Articles clerkship - though the latter now is almost unheard of). I have worked with many law graduates who don't go into law out of choice rather than not being able to get the work. I don't know about the high street lawyers - maybe that's a different thing..

 

At the moment, it's a sellers' labour market here. I cannot recruit a decent business analyst with regulatory reporting experience for love nor money. Anyone decent ends up playing firms off themselves, which I don't join in, because if they do that, they are likely to go anyway, if they get a whiff of a decent offer.

[onetrack]

Peter, I don't understand why you need a lawyer to carry out probate on your wifes estate? Is it an exceedingly complex estate?

 

Most State Govts have Consumer Affairs Bureaus where you can get assistance and free advice on these matters.

 

Even the relevant Govt Depts that handle Probate usually have a section for people wishing to do their own probate application.

There's a bit of running around to do, and I's to be dotted, and T's to be crossed, but it's all pretty straightforward for the average uncomplicated estate.

 

https://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/wills-and-probate/applying-for-a-grant-of-probate-or-administration

Edited July 6, 2022 by onetrack

[Marty_d]

Another thing to consider when looking at these high paying careers is what you have to do to get to that level.

 

I've heard horror stories with both legal and medical of newly starting people being required to basically have no life of their own for years on end.  No holidays, no weekends, on call 24/7, sleep when you can snatch some but still have to turn up perfectly presented early next morning.

 

I may be just a lazy slob but I reckon you need a little work/life balance.  

[facthunter]

You want some quality of Life? What are you? A dangerous crazy lefty or something?  Nev

[Marty_d]

You know me too well.

[Jerry_Atrick]

On 06/07/2022 at 11:57 AM, Marty_d said:

Another thing to consider when looking at these high paying careers is what you have to do to get to that level.

 

I've heard horror stories with both legal and medical of newly starting people being required to basically have no life of their own for years on end.  No holidays, no weekends, on call 24/7, sleep when you can snatch some but still have to turn up perfectly presented early next morning.

 

I may be just a lazy slob but I reckon you need a little work/life balance.  

The big law firms here have in-office dorms for their interns and juniors. They are lucky to get a Saturday evening to themselves. Yes, they pay high starting salaries, but you pay for it.

 

However, they are often retired by the time they are 35 - 40 and don't have too bad a llife after it... Only the really greedy ones keep going.

[onetrack]

I can just hear Tennessee Ernie Ford singing, "Sixteen Tons", right about here.....

[old man emu]

Or Dolly Parton "Nine to Five".

[facthunter]

How wold you describe 17,000 Lawyers at the bottom of the Tasman sea?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A good start. Nev

[rgmwa]

Pollution.

[facthunter]

I gave you the answer. Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

A good start....  Like what do you call something with 4 wheels, 54 eyes, flies and is beautiful?

 

ans...  a busload of lawyers going over a cliff.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I don't really think that.

[rgmwa]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

I gave you the answer. Nev

True, but I thought it was a good question and deserved more than one answer.

[facthunter]

Well I did put a large space there and I though some might miss it. A Lawyer I know had that joke in his waiting room. Nev