Courtesy of Justinian, I bring you the story of the overcharging New Jersey lawyer who charged like this:
"With regard to the fee, he purportedly spent entire days, sometimes eight or nine hours per day, for several days in a row, apparently in 'lockdown' — researching, reviewing and negotiating issues that had little or no bearing [...]

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In Director of Housing v Young [2002] VCAT 227, Deputy President Levine decided that a $14,000 residential tenancy claim of a kind in which VCAT's jurisdiction was limited to $10,000 could be brought pursuant to the Fair Trading Act, 1999 as what is now described as a "consumer-trader dispute" because the Fair Trading Act, 1999 [...]

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FD v New South Wales [2006] NSWSC 1407 is a case where a very difficult case for the plaintiff, in which mistakes were made, did not create, in the plaintiff's solicitor, an obligation, on the defendant's application, to pay costs personally. It was the Armidale District Women's Centre which sought the order against FD, a [...]

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In  Robert J Lawyers v Kirby [2006] VCAT 2609 A client complained about his solicitor's fees. The Legal Services Commissioner was unable to  settle the costs dispute. The solicitor exercised his right to refer the matter to the Legal Practice List of VCAT. Unusual, but sensible, since the Legal Practice Act, 1996 empowers VCAT to [...]

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Re: Richard George Y [2007] MPBV is a decision of the Medical Board of Victoria about a GP and former model, a one-time member of Cleo's 50 most eligible bachelors who came to grief a second time for inappropriate comments while his hands were in his patient's genital area. "Holy Mackerel, you're small, which is [...]

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The latest novel written by a judge about the concept of loss of a chance is Halverson v Dobler [2006] NSWSC 1307. I suspect lawyers professional indemnity specialists spend too little time reading the doctors' negligence cases. Though there seems to be some suggestion that loss of a chance as a concept is on the [...]

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Two blokes shot this well known lawyer's underworld partner Lewis Caine and got put on trial for murder. Representative of a few underworld clients, she refused to give evidence at the two blokes' trials despite having been ordered by the Court to do so. She said she was scared of getting her head blown off. [...]

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In Khoury v Gonvales [2006] NSWSC 1290, Mr Khoury, a solicitor, got from Justice Barrett of the NSW Supreme Court a declaration that he was entitled to a fruits of litigation lien. He had acted for Mr Sef Gonzales in a suit against the executrix of the will of Teddy Gonzales, and won. Sef got [...]

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Update: now reported at (2007) 237 ALR 802 
This little problem gives rise to ridiculous complexities. In Cannon Street Pty Ltd v Karedis [2006] QCA 541, the Queensland Court of Appeal upheld Justice White's decision to allow, as party party costs, work done for the successful party by Clayton Utz Sydney in relation to trial of [...]

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In Malouf v Malouf [2006] NSWCA 83, (2006) 65 NSWLR 449 the NSW Court of Appeal, led by President Mason disapproved of the practice allowed below of a litigant appearing for himself in relation to some points and being represented in relation to others. Warwick Malouf had sued his brother for fraud, and represented himself, [...]

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