What is Litigation?
Litigation is usually defined as the conduct of legal proceedings that are carried out in a Court of Law or a Tribunal. Velos & Velos Lawyers with their vast expert experience are ready and able to assist you in issuing, defending or representing you, if you are a Plaintiff, Defendant or an interested third party, in all Courts and Tribunals in the Commonwealth of Australia, State of Victoria, or assist you overseas.
What are Courts & Tribunals?
Courts and Tribunals are Government Institutions whereby citizens are able to have their legal matters, both civil and criminal, dealt with according to law. In Australia we have a variety of Courts and Tribunals. There are Commonwealth Courts and Tribunals dealing with Federal Legislation and Federal Matters that often have to be dealt with exclusively at the Federal Commonwealth Courts or Tribunals.
In each State and Territory in Australia there are also State Courts and Tribunals that have specific jurisdictions and are able to deal with matters that come before such Courts and Tribunals.
Velos & Velos Lawyers for over forty years have been and are able to represent you in the following Courts and Tribunals: –
- High Court
- Federal Court
- Federal Circuit Court
- Supreme Court
- County Court
- Magistrates Court
VCAT – Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal
Cause of action in Litigation
If you have a complaint or a cause of action, it is extremely important for you to urgently contact Velos & Velos Lawyers and obtain sound, timely and effective legal advice.
We are able to brief Expert Counsel/Barristers to advise and provide you with a written considered expert legal opinion according to law and, if appropriate, instruct Counsel/Barristers to settle Court documentation to issue legal proceedings on your behalf.
This is usually done by a Statement of Claim or a VCAT Points of Claim in order to commence legal proceedings, which is usually referred to as ‘litigation’.
Stages of Litigation
There are many stages in the litigation process and an important stage is the Mediation or Conciliation Conference stage, whereby opportunities would be available for parties to discuss settlement and mediation of the dispute in order to safe significant legal costs, stress and inconvenience to the parties. This process is usually referred to as Mediation or Dispute Resolution Procedures. Velos & Velos Lawyers and Expert Barristers are able to assist you in the settlement of disputes, thus saving significant legal costs and providing an opportunity to the litigants to have a say or have some control over the final outcome of their dispute or litigation process.
In the event that Mediation and Dispute Resolution meetings fail to settle the dispute, the matter is then set down for the final Court Hearing, whereby the litigants will need to brief Counsel to appear on their behalf and proceed to the final Hearing and Judgement stage of the litigation.
There are many pitfalls for parties to proceed to final Court Hearing and Judgement stage as there are numerous and unpredictable risks in proceeding to obtaining Judgement, such as not being able to enforce the Judgement, particularly if a Defendant leaves the Jurisdiction, becomes bankrupt or insolvent and the Plaintiff is not able to collect on the successful judgement an award or an award plus costs awarded during the litigation process.
