Casey v Quabba [2006] QCA 187
As reported in Lawyers Weekly, the Queensland Court of Appeal said the trial judge should have allowed the unsuccessful party in litigation to call for and challenge the validity of the successful party's costs agreement with his solicitor in a party-party taxation of costs on an indemnity basis. Further, the [...]

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Legal Practitioners Conduct Board v Ardalich [2005] SASC 278
A solicitor suffered from what used to be known as "manic depression". He had been charged with criminal offences of forgery but not convicted on mental grounds. The South Australian Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal heard charges that the solicitor was guilty of misconduct in having committed [...]

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Legal Practitioners Conduct Board v Ardalich [2005] SASC 278
The solicitor referred to in the next post could not escape a finding of unprofessional conduct because of his mental state, even though the species of unprofessional conduct alleged against him was the commission of serious criminal offences to which insanity was a defence. The South [...]

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Here is the bill proposing the second round of amendments to the Legal Profession Act, 2004 (Vic.), the Justice Legislation (Further Amendment) Bill, 2006 (Vic.). There are substantial changes to practising certificates and costs disclosure requirements on which I will report when I have digested them.
And the second draft of the National Model Provisions has [...]

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Banjo (NT) Pty Ltd v Ward Keller Pty Ltd [2006] NTCA 1
A tenant alleged its solicitors gave it bad advice on its obligations under a lease which led to it losing the chance to renew the lease. It said it got a new lease, but in order to do so, had to settle [...]

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Legal Practitioners Complaints Committee v B&M [2005] WASAT 217
No doubt Dickens's Bleak House is being dusted off in many a household glued of a Sunday evening to the BBC's new dramatisation which finished in Australia yesterday. In it, lawyers squabble over a disputed estate in the courts of Chancery in the matter of Jarndyce v [...]

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Legal Practitioners' Complaints Committee v SJB [2006] WASAT 201
It is a serious crime in Western Australia to advertise in a way calculated to cause a person make a personal injury claim. A solicitor ran ads headed "Injured in a road accident and made a claim? If so, read on. [footnote: If you have not made [...]

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Mitchell's Case [2005] VLPT 1
A client's claim for compensation in a pecuniary loss dispute failed because she adduced no evidence that had she not been declared bankrupt by reason of her solicitor's negligent failure to turn up to court, she could have avoided bankruptcy on any better basis than she did by paying out the [...]

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Legal Practitioners Complaints Committee and JCB [2005] WASAT 213
A sole practitoner dictated many precedent letters for his routine suburban personal injuries practice. His law clerk of 16 years' experience, an arts graduate and a one-time law student, did all the work in a workers compensation file: she took instructions, signed letters taken from the precedent [...]

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Tweed on behalf of National Exchange Pty Ltd v Griffin Law Firm [2006] VCAT 1305
A solicitor was retained to pursue parties for breaches of contract involving small sums. He fell into dispute with the client in relation to fees in 376 such matters. Mr Howell found there were 376 separate disputes each for less than [...]

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