Haynes Robinson Lawyers: An Albany Law Firm Practising Since 1889
Haynes Robinson Lawyers is a general law firm based in Albany, at 61 Duke Street, acting for clients across the Great Southern. We have been looking after clients in this part of Western Australia since 1889, and we describe ourselves as the oldest law firm in the State. If you need a lawyer in Albany WA, we cover most areas of law from the one office.
Our clients are small and large businesses, farmers, families and individuals. A good number of them have been with the firm across several generations, which is the kind of thing that happens when a practice stays in one town for as long as this one has.
How We Prefer to Work
Where we can, we avoid arguing technicalities or letting a matter turn into a long legal battle. We break the law down into everyday language so you can decide how to proceed, and we set out the options rather than the mystery. Fixed fees are used where possible.
One detail says something about the length of the firm’s memory: we hold over 10,000 wills in our strong room. They range from straightforward wills for a family through to wills with testamentary and protective trusts in them, and we do wills for a fixed fee.
We publish a guarantee of six commitments, and it is plainer than most. We will help you find the wisest and most cost-effective solution; provide a fixed fee, or a reliable estimate where we cannot; never mislead you into engaging in unnecessary and expensive drawn-out legal processes; explain everything you need to know in language you understand; keep you informed and respond promptly to your queries; and get the job done in a timely manner, with most documentary matters turned around in three to five days. That last figure is the sort of specific worth having before you ring around.
The Areas of Law We Cover
The practice is deliberately broad rather than narrow, which suits a regional town where one family’s questions rarely stay inside a single area of law.
Our Practice Areas
- Wills, estate planning and probate: including deceased estate administration.
- Property law and conveyancing: along with transfer duty.
- Commercial and corporate law: for businesses of all sizes, plus insolvency.
- Agribusiness: farm matters, which are a regular part of the work here.
- Litigation and alternative dispute resolution: with an emphasis on resolving matters before court where that is possible.
- Personal injury and workers compensation: and workplace relations.
- Criminal law, elder law, debt collection, and local government and planning.
Farmers, Families and Businesses
We set our work out by who is asking rather than by the name of the statute, which is the more useful way round for most people.
For farmers it covers agricultural disputes, animal welfare proceedings and advice, contract and agreement drafting, environment and contaminated sites, farm sales and purchases, farm succession, faulty equipment issues, finance, partnership and shareholder agreements, and stamp duty advice and structuring. In a district like this one that is the practice rather than a sideline.
For individuals it takes in administration and guardianship issues, defamation, employment, unfair dismissal and redundancy, family law, neighbour issues, restraining orders, seniors issues and superannuation, alongside the conveyancing, wills, estate planning, personal injury and criminal work above.
For businesses it takes in business, company and trust structuring, buying or selling a business, contracts and agreements, franchises, debt collection, environmental law and contaminated sites, partnership and shareholder agreements, and resolving business disputes.
Who You Will Deal With
Jamie Hodgkinson graduated in Law with Honours from Bond University in 1999, having earlier taken a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Western Australia. He has practised in commercial, corporate and property law, dispute resolution, litigation, insolvency, and wills and probate. Before moving to Albany he was a Senior Associate at Clayton Utz. Originally from Perth, he is settled in Albany with his family.
He also writes about why the firm works the way it does. His view is that when people do things on a wink and a nod, or write an agreement on the back of a coaster, the emotional toll when it goes wrong is often bigger than the financial one. Most people prefer clarity and would rather have things up front, but often neither party has the courage to spell out the fine print of a verbal or a gentleman’s agreement. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as he puts it, so what we look for are solutions that minimise or prevent difficulties later on.
Getting in Touch
We are at 61 Duke Street, Albany WA 6330, with post to PO Box 485, Albany WA 6331. Call (08) 9841 1122 or email [email protected], and there is an enquiry form on our website. If you are not sure whether you need a lawyer at all, we are happy to talk your issue through on a preliminary basis without obligation — sometimes that conversation is enough on its own. For legal advice in Albany, that is the simplest place to start.