Welcome to LEGAL TELL ALL, an Australia-based website designed to keep an eye on happenings in the Australian legal scene. Take a look at our roundup of interesting legal cases currently in the news. As well as this sometimes tongue-in-cheek look at the Australian legal system, we offer a unique outlet to discuss your own legal experiences. Anyone who has experienced our legal system will know it can be extraordinarily intimidating and frustrating, not to mention bleedingly expensive.

Unfortunately it is hard to know who are simply “bucket shop” solicitors. It is the same in many professions but unfortunately the penalty for choosing an untalented or less-than-honest lawyer can be catastrophic.

If for some reason you are unhappy with the services of your solicitor you can lodge a complaint with the Office Of Legal Services Commissioner. Remember that at the top of the legal profession regulatory pile are more lawyers — judges. Even in the case of disputes over lawyers' "costs" (that is, your bill), the matter is referred to a costs assessor — a cosy arrangement where one lawyer rules on the complaint against another lawyer.

Like many people, I find legal issues to be extremely stressful. They can take over one’s life and can affect one’s health, often leading to depression. Interesting to note even lawyers experience this common problem.

This website has been designed to motivate interaction, so please forward any interesting legal tales or information that may assist my documentary.

If facing the option of becoming entangled with solictors, barristers and the whole apparatus of the law, don’t think twice about it. Think ten times. Or more. While the law protects us, at least hypothetically, it can also break and bankrupt the unwary. Before launching into legal combat, keep these four common wisdoms in mind:

1. Avoid the experience if at all possible.
2. Lawyers are extremely pricey and can play both sides.
3. The law may be an ass (as the old saying goes) but the legal profession is not: it is a self-regulating, good ol’boys and girls club that intimidates anyone who’s not a member.
4. Avoid the experience if at all possible.

Derek Taylor