A decision of Senior Member Howell on 31 August 2007 has only just hit the screens: Legal Services Commissioner v IDE [2007] VCAT 2244.  A solicitor of 32 years' standing let a file fester in the too hard basket for too long and then 'buried his head in the sand' when the Bureau sent over [...]

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Ok, ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but the solicitor did put out a costs agreement and fee disclosure document which contained no estimate other than $2,500, and did charge $111,000, which was reduced on an assessment — a NSW privatised version of taxation — and did not provide any re-estimates before putting out [...]

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I provided my 25 handy hints on affidavits earlier. Two of them were:

it is undesirable for one deponent to refer to another’s affidavit and effectively incorporate it by reference; much better to reiterate the whole story in the second witness’s own words;
a few inconsistencies between affidavits enhance their credibility rather than detract from it [...]

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I posted about Swart v Carr here and here.  It is a decision about whether a solicitor's liability for certain entrepeneurial activities undertaken by him 'was incurred "in connection with" "the business of practising as a solicitor".  The trial judge answered affirmatively.  Now Justice Palmer's decision has been reversed by the New South Wales Court [...]

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In Chantrey Vellacott v The Convergence Group PLC [2007] EWHC 1774 (Ch) chartered accountants sued their former client for a quarter of a million pounds sterling in fees. They were met with one of those absurd counterclaims which such suits often generate, for negligence, claiming 115 million pounds sterling in damages. The defendant and [...]

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Even though legal professional privilege, duties of confidentiality, and other evidentiary privileges are something I try to keep up with, and though I have just advised a litigation funder on the subject, I would be challenged by an urgent brief to argue the privilege of a communication between in-house counsel and a staff member [...]

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English firm CMS Cameron McKenna has published a case note on Case Stone & Rolls Limited (in liquidation) v. Moore Stephens (a firm) [2007] EWHC 1826 (Comm). It is a decision which considers the rule ex turpi causa non oritur actio in the context of a professional liability claim, in this case to a claim [...]

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In the last post, a solicitor ignored the Bureau de Spank for 3 months, a default explicable by personal circumstances and depression during the relevant period.  In Legal Services Commissioner v JEH [2007] VCAT 2181 (27 September 2007), a Warragul solicitor ignored the Commissioner for almost 6 months. The reasons are broad-brush in their approach [...]

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The definitions of the greater and lesser disciplinary offences under the Legal Practice Act, 1996 and the new Legal Profession Act, 2004 are different.  Under the old act, the one was distinguished from the other by the absence or presence or wilful contravention of norms, or recklessness as to whether conduct would contravene norms. No [...]

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Update, 15 January 2008: Senior Member Howell decided costs and penalty on 17 December 2007: [2007] VCAT 2465.  The Commissioner sought an injunction to restrain the solicitor from repeating the conduct.  Unnecessary, said Mr Howell, who refused to make any such order.  Now that the solicitor has had the law clarified, as he was entitled [...]

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