What If You Treat a Legal Cost Estimate Like a Quote?
Published: 6 March 2026 | Reviewed: 27 September 2026
(3-minute read)
When you hire someone to do professional work, the usual pattern feels simple.
There is a job.
There is a price or estimate.
You agree.
The work begins.
So, when a lawyer gives you a costs agreement containing a description of the work and an estimate, it is easy to read the estimate as if it were a quote:
This is the job. This is roughly what it will cost. I sign, and the lawyer does it.
That interpretation is understandable.
It can also affect how we compare lawyers.
Imagine one lawyer estimates $15,000 and another estimates $30,000.
The lower number can naturally feel safer.
But the smallest estimate does not necessarily give you the clearest picture of what may lie ahead.
The number is only one part of what you are agreeing to.
Three other things matter:
Scope: What work does the agreement cover?
Clarity: How clearly does the estimate explain what sits behind the number?
Authority: What work am I authorising the lawyer to do, and when and how?
Scope: What work does the agreement cover?
A costs agreement may describe different kinds of work.
Advice.
Documents.
Negotiations.
Experts.
Applications.
Preparation for a hearing.
Some of that work may never become necessary.
Some of it may become important later.
So the first question is:
What work does this agreement cover?
That helps you understand the scope of the engagement.
Clarity: What sits behind the estimate?
A number is easier to understand when you can see what sits behind it.
What work has been allowed for?
What assumptions have been made?
What stages may lie ahead?
Not every future task can be known at the beginning.
Legal disputes can change as new information emerges.
But the clearer the estimate is about the work and assumptions behind it, the easier it may be to understand what the number represents.
Two estimates can therefore look easy to compare while describing different possible paths.
Before comparing the numbers, compare what sits behind them.
Authority: What am I authorising?
Scope is one question.
Authority is another.
An agreement may describe work that could become relevant as the dispute develops. But that does not, by itself, tell you what work you are authorising the lawyer to do.
So ask:
What work am I authorising the lawyer to do, plus when and how?
One way to test this is to ask:
What work, if any, will come back to me before it begins?
Some work may be urgent.
Some tasks may be interconnected.
It will not always be practical to treat every individual task as a separate decision.
But the distinction still matters.
Scope and authority are related.
They are not necessarily the same thing
Three things worth checking
A legal cost estimate matters.
But the estimate is not the whole agreement.
Before focusing only on the number, ask:
Scope: What work does this agreement cover?
Clarity: How clearly does the estimate explain what sits behind the number? Authority: What work am I authorising the lawyer to do, and when and how?
And if the answer is unclear, another question may help:
What work, if any, will come back to me before it begins?
You do not need perfect prediction.
You need enough clarity to understand what you are agreeing to.
Scope. Clarity. Authority.
By Nicky Wang
Principal Solicitor