Caveats and their hopfeul removal

Hi all,
Does anybody have experience with having caveats removed from their properties?

I've been researching about caveats as I'm completely clueless about exactly what they are, do and how to remove them. My basic understanding is that they stop the sale of a property until they are released by the caveat placer usually through payment of a debt? I'm hoping some people on here may be able to help me with the info that I need!

Currently I've had two caveats placed on my property. One by a solicitor and the other by my creedit union.

There are a couple of sob stories involved with both caveats, but I'll try not to bore you with them for now, unless they are needed!

The first caveat placed by the solicitor (who is based in NSW), was placed on my property in Tasmania for fee's owed. I feel as though I was blackmailed and forced to sign under great duress (one hour before court or he would cease to represent) to allow him to place the caveat on my property. I was very naive at the time and had no idea what I was really signing, and even though I requested the opportunity to seek further legal advice, he said I couldn't…. (I was lied to by this solicitor and promised many things but in the end, on the day of court he told me he hadn't even prepared for our case…)

The second caveat was placed by my credit union when I fell behind on repayments for my personal loan due to redundancy and a few other issues. I also have a homeloan for the said property with this credit union ( have kept up with homeloan repayments though!). Does this mean they have a right to place a caveat on my home?

So does anybody have any ideas or experience with removing caveats such as these that they could share with me?

I have no idea if I have any legal standings to have them removed. For the solicitor I was thinking that because I was forced to sign under great duress this may be grounds to have it removed?
For the credit union I was thinking because the personal loan has nothing to do with my property I may have grounds to have it removed?

Otherwise I was hoping that they may not bother defending the caveats in court as it would be to costly? (Especially for the solicitor based in NSW?)

If they did successfully defend, would this make me liable for their legal costs???

I really have no idea what to do, and I can't afford a solicitor at this point in time… and wouldn't know of one that I feel I could trust either after my last encounter with one!

I hope some of you guys can help us out!

Thank you for your time!