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Switching Flexibility -
Built In to Protect Your Freedom

Published: 1 December 2025 | Reviewed: 3 December 2025

The Hidden Trap: Why Many Australians Can’t Switch Lawyers When They Need To

In the traditional trust-account model, once your money is drawn and work has begun, your lawyer controls both the funds and your file.

If you try to switch mid-case:

  • your lawyer can hold the file until their final bill is paid

  • parts of the bill may be disputed, but the file is needed urgently

  • money that could resolve the bill may already have been used

  • you must choose between paying first or staying stuck

This is the lien: a lawyer’s right to keep your file until costs are settled.

For many Australians, it makes switching lawyers risky, stressful, and sometimes impossible, right when they need freedom the most.

How Clean Law Removes the Trap

Escrow reverses the traditional power imbalance.
Your money stays in an approval-only account that neither lawyer can draw from without your written release.

This structure makes the lien trap impossible.

From the Two-Lawyer Collaboration & Escrow Oversight Statement:

“Unearned funds remain in escrow… the client stays free to change courtroom lawyers without losing unearned funds or jeopardising momentum.”

Here is what this means, in practice:

  1. Your file cannot be held as leverage

    A courtroom lawyer cannot keep your documents until a bill is paid.
    If additional costs are claimed, they cannot assert a lien over work that hasn’t been authorised or released from escrow.

  2. Completed work is already paid - nothing else moves

    Each stage is completed, checked, and approved before any funds are released.
    Escrow holds the money for that stage in plain view, removing any ground to withhold your file.

  3. You stay mobile even if a cost dispute appears

    If a fee concern arises, Clean Law acts on the client side to help resolve it.
    Your matter continues with a new courtroom lawyer without delay or penalty.

  4. No duplicated work when switching

    Stage-based documentation means the next courtroom lawyer sees exactly what has been done and what has been paid for.
    Your matter moves forward cleanly, without repeating work or costs.

Stage-Based Escrow: Your Safety Gate Between Phases

Escrow divides your matter into clear, documented stages.
Each stage has objective completion criteria that must be met before any funds move.

A stage is paid only when:

  • the work for that stage is completed

  • the file for that stage is released

  • you approve the escrow payment

If you decide to switch lawyers:

  • completed stages stay paid, no repeated work

  • unearned funds remain untouched in escrow

  • the next lawyer begins at the next stage without delay

  • the file for the completed stage is already with you or immediately available

There is no financial penalty for switching.
Escrow removes the practical and financial barriers that normally make mid-case changes risky or impossible.

What Escrow Stops Cold

Escrow blocks the structural triggers that create lien pressure in the traditional model:

  • unapproved early trial preparation

  • scope creep or premature expansion

  • blurred timing about what has been paid for

  • duplicated charges when switching lawyers

  • withholding of the file

  • clients losing access to work they have already funded

Switching flexibility is not a bonus feature.
It is the direct structural outcome of the escrow system.

Structural Protections That Keep Switching Safe

Switching freedom only works when the structure is clean.

Clean Law is separate from your courtroom lawyer, with no referral fees, no shared profits, and no commercial ties.
This ensures your decision to switch remains yours alone, without pressure or influence.

Escrow then enforces that structure through:

  • client-controlled fund releases

  • stage-based payment

  • clear file-release conditions

  • strict separation between settlement and trial roles

These safeguards ensure that switching lawyers stays practical, affordable, and under your authority at every stage.

Summary: Clean Structure = Safe Switching

Two lawyers often cost less than one
because you fund one path, not both.

Aligned incentives create structural cost safety.
If YOU save, WE win. If your case DRAGS, we lose.

Switching freedom is not a feature, it is a safeguard designed through:

Clean Law is built to stop cost spiral before it gets a chance.

By Nicky Wang
Principal Solicitor
Legal Liaison Ltd (trading as Clean Law)
Prepared in accordance with public-interest governance,
annual Law Society trust-account audits, and ACNC-reported standards.

Disclaimer: This page is intended to provide general information only and is not legal advice. The contents may not reflect the most current legal developments and do not take into account your individual circumstances. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of this information without obtaining legal advice tailored to your situation.