Lawyers Serving Toowong
Toowong is the closest of these suburbs to the city, and it behaves like it — denser, more apartments, more small business, and a different set of disputes as a result.
Terra Australis Legal acts for clients in Toowong from our base at nearby Kenmore, in criminal, family, domestic violence, employment, commercial and litigation matters. Toowong is within the Brisbane local government area, so criminal charges and protection order applications are ordinarily heard in the Brisbane Magistrates Court and family law matters in the Brisbane registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court.
Density changes the disputes
Toowong sits about five kilometres from the CBD and is substantially more built up than the suburbs west of it, with a large stock of apartments and a concentration of professional offices and small businesses around the village and the rail station. That density produces its own category of legal problem.
Body corporate and strata disputes are common here in a way they simply are not in Kenmore or Brookfield — disagreements about levies, by-laws, common property, noise and building defects. So are commercial leasing disputes for the small professional and service businesses in the area, and disputes between the owners of those businesses where nothing was ever documented at the start.
That last category is worth flagging, because it is entirely avoidable and we see it often. Two or three people start a business together, agree the important things verbally, and have no shareholder or unitholder agreement. There is then no agreed mechanism for one of them to leave, be bought out, or be removed. It is not a problem until the relationship becomes one, and by then negotiating it is far harder and considerably more expensive. Our business contracts page explains what should be documented.
How we actually work, and what we are not
Terra Australis Legal is based at Kenmore, with a postal address of PO Box 386, Kenmore QLD 4069. Our postal address is PO Box 386, Kenmore QLD 4069. A great deal of our work — taking instructions, reviewing documents, advising on options — is done by phone, email and video, which is faster for most people than travelling to an office and costs less.
Where a matter needs a face-to-face meeting, call 1300 165 767 and we will confirm how and where. Where it needs someone in court, we appear.
We are admitted in the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia and act for clients across Queensland and, in Commonwealth matters such as family law and employment, Australia-wide.
Where matters from Toowong are heard
If you live in a strata scheme
Community titles schemes in Queensland are governed by their own legislation and regulation modules, and the dispute resolution pathway is not the ordinary court system. Most disputes must first go through internal processes and then through conciliation with the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management before any adjudication.
The practical significance is that the sequence matters. An owner who commences in the wrong forum loses time and money, and a body corporate that fails to follow the required process can find a decision unenforceable. Knowing which module applies to your scheme is the first question, not a detail.