FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What do you do?

We’re your building and construction lawyers in Queensland. As building and construction lawyers, we focus on practising in our specific area of the law, which is building and construction law. Here in Queensland, we perform contract work (drafting and reviews) and litigation work (disputes, adjudication) for our building and construction clients. Our clients come to us from across all parts of Queensland, and from outside the state and across Australia too.

What can't you do?

For legal work we don’t perform (such as conveyancing, environmental, human resources, tax, company, etc...), we can refer you to other law firms which can carry out the work for you. As a general rule, we don’t act for builders, but there are other law firms who do, so for builders who approach us we refer them on to other firms, back to QBCC or to their industry associations for help.

What happens when I engage your services?

In compliance with the Queensland Law Society’s strict requirements, we are clear and transparent about our legal fees when people or organisations consider engaging us to work on their matters. The pre-engagement process starts off with you contacting us to tell us about your legal matter and you asking us whether we may be able to help you. At that stage, we’ll have a conversation to find out enough information for us to estimate whether or not we can help. If we think we can help you, we’ll send you an engagement pack (containing an engagement letter, disclosure notice and costs agreement) which describes the scope of work we believe you want us to work on, our estimates of costs (depending on our assessment of your matter, some cost estimates may be based on time based charges and others may be fixed fee) and our terms and conditions of engagement. If we think we are unable to help you, we will refer you to one or several other law firms for you to consider approaching for help.

What are your working hours?

We work Monday to Friday, our business hours are 9am to 5pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time). We have a voicemail system operating outside our business hours, and when our team is all engaged on phone calls during business hours. Our contact phone number is 07 3128 0120. Our general enquiries email address is general@arbuildinglaw.com.au or use our Contact form at the bottom of our homepage.

What community interests do you support?

A sample of the community interests we support include:

• Scarlett May Foundation
• The Smith Family
• Women in Building and Construction

Who do you help?

As building lawyers, we help homeowners and home investors with their building projects. As construction lawyers, we help subcontractors, trade contractors and developers with their construction projects and construction industry businesses.

Who are your alliance partners?

A sample of our alliance partners are listed below:

• ARC Solutions - Information security and risk management
• All Inspect - Building and termite inspections

Why should I choose your firm to work for me?

Along with this question, you may also want to ask "How do I know you'll understand me and my interests in my legal matters?" and "How will I know and understand the legal advice you give me?". At Aitchison Reid Building and Construction Lawyers, we listen. We pride ourselves in being friendly, ethical and professional. We make the law easy to understand because we write and speak in plain English. We involve you so that you feel consulted on the pace and direction of your matter and so that you know and understand what is going on and being done for you. As our legal practice is focussed on building and construction law, our specialisation helps you save time and expense. We live and breathe building and construction law and the industry every day:

• We keep up to date with building and construction law;
• We speak and understand the language of the building and construction industry;
• We are entrenched in the building and construction industry through our team’s members' industry training, professional training and business training;
• We are entrenched in the building and construction industry through our team's members' life and business experiences (members of the team having built or renovated homes, been raised in families earning livelihoods within the industry, or having previously worked for businesses in the industry prior to joining our team); and
• We are entrenched in the building and construction industry physically because we choose to have our head office based in an industrial zone ( Enterprise St, Cleveland 4163).

Why is getting legal advice worth the costs involved?

Getting good and proactive frontend legal advice about your building and construction risks and problems before they happen is less expensive and more cost effective than waiting for those risks to turn into big problems and disputes. However, even once a big problem or dispute occurs, it is always more cost effective to get good litigation and dispute advice from experienced building and construction lawyers, such as Aitchison Reid here in Queensland. Although seeking legal advice is a cost to your budget, we provide cost effective value for your money and budget. Please note that if you have a building dispute or construction dispute, it is always important to get legal advice as soon as possible.

Have you any testimonials from your clients?

We have testimonials from some of our clients published on our website. For homeowner testimonials, go to our www.homeowners.arbuildinglaw.com.au site and select Testimonials from the About menu. For subcontractor and trade contractor testimonials, go to our www.subcontractors.arbuildinglaw.com.au site and select Testimonials from the About menu.

Where can I find information on your team?

Please visit our Meet Our Team page.

Where are you located?

Our head office is located at Unit 2, 34 Enterprise Street, Cleveland, Redland City, 4163, Queensland.

Is Aitchison Reid involved with the Building Industry Fairness Reforms Implementation and Evaluation Panel?

Our Director and Principal Solicitor Fionna C Aitchison Reid has been appointed to the Building Industry Fairness Reforms Implementation and Evaluation Panel by Minister Mick de Brenni, which was announced by media statement and in the Queensland Parliament, Tuesday 12 June 2018. Fionna is joined on the panel by three colleagues, with the four panellists recognised by the Minister as eminent professionals. In the media release from Aitchison Reid, Fionna said: "I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to contribute to this panel and wish to thank the Subcontractors’ Alliance for my nomination. In my experience as a building and construction lawyer I have witnessed many tragedies that have affected small businesses, communities and families. Being named on this panel means I have the opportunity to be a part of positive change in the construction industry.” References: Minister's media statement: http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2018/6/12/security-of-payment-implementation-supporting-queensland-jobs
Minister's statement in Parliament, at 1 hr, 26 mins, 19 sec: http://tv.parliament.qld.gov.au/?reference=0Mba20180612_100800
Minister's statement in Hansard, at page 1393: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/hansard/2018/2018_06_12_DAILY.pdf
Aitchison Reid's media release: https://www.subcontractors.arbuildinglaw.com.au/single-post/2018/06/13/Media-Release-Fionna-Reid-named-on-State-Government-panel