PART A — DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The Uniform Law requires a law practice (us) to disclose to you (the client) the following information relating to legal costs.

1. HOW OUR CHARGES ARE CALCULATED

Our charges include professional fees, disbursements, and applicable GST.

PROFESSIONAL FEES

Our professional fees are calculated in accordance with Hourly Charge Rates. In providing legal services to you our staff will record their time respectively and have an hourly charge rate which reflects their skills and experience. We may adjust our charges to account for the skill, care, responsibility, or urgency of the matter with respect to any work in which we undertake in direct relation to your matter.

Each attendance is calculated and charged in multiples of 6-minute units. 10 units = 1 hour.

For example, time charged for an attendance of up to 6 minutes at an hourly rate of $350.00 plus GST is equal to 1 unit = $35.00 plus GST.

The current hourly rates of the people likely to be involved in work undertaken on your behalf are:

Position	Hourly Rate (excl GST)	Hourly Rate (incl GST)
Principal & Senior Solicitors	$500.00	$550.00
Employee Solicitors	$450.00	$495.00
Administrative Staff	$120.00	$132.00

These rates are reviewed from time to time and may change. We will tell you of any changes as soon as practicable after a change occurs.

DISBURSEMENTS

In providing legal services to you, it may also be necessary for us to incur other fees, expenses and charges referred to as disbursements.

These are additional to our professional fees and are out-of-pocket payments or obligations to pay third parties on your behalf such as Court fees, Barristers' fees, experts' fees, bank charges, travel expenses, stamp duty, Government fees, search fees, photocopying charges, and other expenses. You must pay reasonable disbursements, including GST, incurred by us on your behalf either on demand or at the conclusion of this matter.

2. YOUR RIGHTS

You have a right to:

1. Negotiate a Costs Agreement and the billing method with us;
2. Receive a tax invoice from us and request an itemised tax invoice within 30 days after receipt of a tax invoice from us that is not itemised or is only partially itemised;
3. Be notified of any significant change to the basis on which legal costs will be calculated or any significant change to the estimate of total legal costs;
4. Seek independent legal advice before agreeing to the legal costs we propose to charge in this matter; and
5. Seek the assistance of the designated local regulatory authority (Victorian Legal Services Commissioner) in the event of a dispute about legal costs.

3. OUR ACCOUNTS

We will provide you with interim tax invoices at the end of each month or at suitable breaks in the matter and a final tax invoice will be given to you at the conclusion of the matter.

Our accounts are due and payable within 7 days.

The account will be a tax invoice and describe the work that we have done. If you require an itemised account, you must request this within 30 days after you receive the account.

Interest on unpaid accounts — If our account remains unpaid after you receive a tax invoice, we may charge you interest from the date on which the account became payable at a rate that is equal to the Cash Rate Target as specified by the Reserve Bank of Australia as at the date on which moneys become due and payable by you, plus 10 percent.

4. TRUST MONEY

We may ask you to pay an amount in advance to cover expenses or on account of our fees.

If we receive money into our trust account on your behalf, you authorise us to draw on that money to pay any amount due from you to us in accordance with the provisions of the Uniform Law and the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015 relating to the withdrawal of trust money for legal costs. A trust statement will be forwarded to you upon completion of the matter.

5. PROGRESS REPORTS

We will make every effort to keep you informed of progress in this matter. We will give you a progress report at reasonable intervals. You may request a written report on the progress of the matter at any time. We are entitled to and will charge a reasonable amount for any report we prepare, but we will not charge you for any report we prepare in relation to the legal costs.

6. LITIGIOUS MATTERS

In litigious matters, the court may decide who will pay the successful party's costs. These costs are known as "standard costs" and are calculated using the court scale of costs applicable to the matter.

Recovery of costs

If your litigious matter is successful, the court may order a party or parties to pay some of your costs. If the court orders that a party or parties are to pay some of your costs, we estimate that you will recover 55 to 65 percent of your total costs.

An order for costs in your favour does not affect your liability to pay all our charges and all disbursements. The costs you may recover from another party are unlikely to cover the whole of the legal costs that you must pay us. If you cannot recover legal costs from the other party (if for example the party goes into liquidation or becomes bankrupt), you will still be liable to pay our total legal costs.

Your liability for the costs of another party

If your litigious matter is unsuccessful, the court may order you to pay some of the other party's legal costs. We estimate that this amount could be about 65 to 80 percent of our total legal costs. Please note that your liability to pay the costs of another party, if ordered by the court, applies regardless of whether you entered into a Costs Agreement with us.

7. CONCERNS ABOUT OUR LEGAL COSTS

If you have any concern about our legal costs or our legal services, please do not hesitate to contact the Principal responsible for your matter on (03) 9008 7224.

8. JURISDICTION

The Uniform Law as applied in Victoria shall apply to legal costs in this matter.

9. YOUR DOCUMENTS

Your documents may be destroyed after seven years from the date of our final bill unless you write to us requesting retention for a longer period. At the end of the matter, and provided our invoices are paid in full, we will release your file and your documents as you direct.

10. ENGAGEMENT OF ANOTHER LAWYER OR LAW PRACTICE

In providing legal services for you, it may be necessary to engage another law practice (including Barristers) to provide specialist advice or services.

We will consult you about the terms of these engagements before incurring the expense. We will provide you with a statement setting out the rates and estimated costs of any other law practice we propose to engage as soon as the retained law practice provides this information to us.

11. TERMINATION OF ENGAGEMENT

Circumstances may arise (such as a conflict of interest) that make it impossible for us to continue to act for you. We may also cease acting for you if you breach your obligations as set out in the Cost Agreement. We will notify you immediately if any of these matters arise.

If we cease to act for you during the course of your matter, then all legal costs incurred up to the date of the termination will be charged.

If we cease to act for you:

1. we will take steps to remove our name from the court record in any court proceedings;
2. you will receive a final account which will include all outstanding legal costs;
3. you must pay our legal costs up until the date we cease to act; and
4. we may retain your file and keep your documents until we are paid, subject to any other statutory requirements.

You may end our engagement by written notice at any time. If this occurs before then all legal costs incurred up to the date of the termination will be charged and become immediately payable. Depending on circumstances, we may be entitled to exercise our right to a solicitor's lien by retaining documents related to any matters we are conducting on your behalf.

PART B — COSTS AGREEMENT

The Legal Profession Uniform Law (Victoria) ("Uniform Law") allows a law practice (us) and you (the client) to agree on how the law practice's charges are to be calculated and paid. It is called a "Costs Agreement" and it may be enforced in the same way as any other contract.

The terms of our offer to you are set out in this Costs Agreement. If you accept these terms, this document and the Disclosure Statement will make up the complete Costs Agreement between us for this matter.

1. ACCEPTANCE

You may accept this Costs Agreement by:

1. sending a reply email which provided this Costs Agreement which indicates that you accept the terms of this Costs Agreement;
2. Signing and returning a copy of the Acknowledgment at the end of this document to us; or
3. Continuing to use and instruct us as your lawyers in this matter.

This Costs Agreement will be effective from the date that we first received your instructions, and the terms will continue to apply to any future work in relation to this matter.

2. OUR CHARGES

You will be liable to pay our charges which will comprise of our professional fees, disbursements, and any applicable GST. Our professional fees are calculated in accordance with hourly rates or fixed charges set out in the Disclosure Statement.

3. OUR ACCOUNTS

We will charge you at cost for any professional fees and disbursements we incur on your behalf. You must pay professional fees and disbursements, including Goods and Services Tax (GST), for work and expenses incurred by us on your behalf either on demand or at the conclusion of this matter. You consent to receiving bills:

1. by post to the address specified by you;
2. by email address or mobile phone number to the address or number specified by you;
3. by any other means of electronic transmission agreed to by you and us; or
4. any way specified in Rule 73 of the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015.

If you do not pay our account this entitles us to exercise a common law right known as a solicitor's lien. The lien allows us to retain your file, documents and other information until our account is paid.

Security Charge

In order to secure our costs of any unpaid accounts owing to us, you hereby grant a charge in favour of CMK Legal over all estate and interest in any real property (i.e., land) and/or in any other assets whether tangible or intangible in which you have any legal or beneficial interest and/or in which you later acquire such interest. Should any of our charges be outstanding for more than 30 days after the date of the account, you acknowledge that we are irrevocably and unconditionally entitled to lodge a caveat against such real property as valid security for all amounts due and payable to us. We will release any caveat promptly upon payment of all unpaid charges.

4. YOUR OBLIGATIONS

We require you to, and you agree to:

1. provide full and honest instructions relevant to your matter and any material change in your circumstances that might impact on your matter while we continue to act for you;
2. co-operate in the matter and do all that we reasonably request of you in a timely manner;
3. accept and follow our reasonable legal advice; and
4. provide funds in advance in accordance with this Costs Agreement or some later agreed arrangement.

If you fail to comply with any of these conditions, we will have the option to terminate this Costs Agreement by advising you of termination in writing.