Consultation on the Costs Disclosure Amendment Rule

The Legal Services Council (Council) has published a consultation paper (PDF, 3.3 MB) seeking feedback on the draft Legal Profession Uniform General Amendment (Costs Disclosure) Rule 2026 (Cost Disclosure Amendment Rule).

The Cost Disclosure Amendment Rule would make the following amendments to the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015 (Uniform General Rules).

• Increase the upper costs disclosure threshold to $10,000 (excluding GST and disbursements) by inserting a new Rule 72(1).
• Expand the classes of “commercial or government clients” exempt from Part 4.3 costs disclosure obligations by amending Rule 71 to add: trustees in bankruptcy; overseas-registered foreign law practices; and certain government-controlled corporations with share capital.
• Replace existing prescribed shortform disclosure Forms 1 and 2 with updated versions by deleting Schedule 1 in the Uniform General Rules and prescribing updated forms through new Rule 72(2).

The proposed amendments arise from an independent review of cost disclosure thresholds commissioned by the Council in 2023. The final report from that review is available on the Council’s website. Following the review, the Council redesigned the shortform disclosure forms to be more user-friendly for legal practitioners and consumers of legal services. The Council commissioned user-testing of the updated forms and revised the forms to reflect user feedback – the updated forms are at Annexure B of the paper. A report summarising the results of the user testing, published in February 2026, is available on our website.

We note that many stakeholders have previously provided input on issues canvassed in this consultation paper during consultation for the 2023 final report, and during a targeted consultation earlier this year. We are, through this consultation, seeking stakeholder views on the draft Cost Disclosure Amendment Rule at Annexure A of the paper, as required under s 425(3)(b) of the Uniform Law.

To contribute to this consultation, please email your responses to the questions in the Consultation Paper to submissions@legalservicescouncil.org.au by COB 16 July 2026. If you would like your submission to be treated as confidential, please clearly indicate this when sending it to us.

Should you have any questions, please contact us at lsc@legalservicescouncil.org.au.