A client sued his former solicitor in VCAT for a declaration that no fees were owing because of costs disclosure defaults by the solicitor. Member Butcher stayed the proceeding pending taxation by the Supreme Court's Taxing Master on the basis that the sending of a cost disclosure statement at the same time as the work [...]

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Patterson v S [1998] VLPT 11 is a decision of the Legal Profession Tribunal dealing with a sole practitioner who was the executor of a priest's will. It held that executors' work carried out by an executor who happens to be a solicitor is not legal work, and so fees for the work were not [...]

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In Hoover Slovacek LLP v. Walton, Supreme Court of Texas, 3 November 2006, the Court severed a provision in a contingency fee agreement which entitled the lawyer to three-tenths of the “present value of the claim” forthwith upon termination by the client, whether for just cause or not. Instead, the lawyer recovered three-tenths of the [...]

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The 55 year old Melbourne Grammar boy Michael Brett Young is a former Maurice Blackburn Cashman mandarin, just like his predecessor, John Cain, son of Premier Cain, who opened up the spot by taking up the plum post of Victorian Government Solicitor. His two sons are studying law.

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Geoffrey Vos QC, the new Chairman of the English Bar Council gave his inaugural address on 11 December 2006, lamenting the imminent demise under the Legal Services Bill, of the last vestiges of self-regulation in England, a hoped-for statutory entitlement in the independent regulator in its discretion to delegate matters back to the traditional disciplinary [...]

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Lawyers Weekly's 2 February 2007 edition reported the following comments from John Fast, Chief Legal Counsel of BHP-Billiton:
'“The area where I think the biggest difficulties arise is in … conflicts, and that is an area where increasingly firms that do not have a very clear conflicts of interest policy are at a disadvantage, and will [...]

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In Orrong Strategies Pty Ltd v Village Roadshow Limited [2007] VSC 1, Habersberger J considered the burden of proof required in a civil case in which contravention of s. 314 of the Legal Practice Act, 1996 (Vic.) was alleged. That was a criminal provision, providing for imprisonment for up to 2 years, and to breach [...]

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Here's an interesting report on a little American case which is illustrative of the special jealousy with which the law reserves to lawyers the making of wills, together with some interesting broader commentary on the whole question of the reservation of "legal work" to lawyers. An insurance salesman engaged in unqualified practice by helping a [...]

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Hammerstone Pty Ltd v Lewis [1994] 2 Qd R 267 BC9303056 is a useful case for solicitors sued for negligence. I advised a client to rely on it the other day, and he did, successfully, in the Magistrates' Court at Melbourne. He acted for a woman who failed to pay his bill. He sued, and [...]

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