National Australia Bank Ltd v Chen-Conway [2008] NSWSC 485 reiterates and approves the following propositions to be found in Micarone v Perpetual Trustees Australia Ltd & Ors (No 2) [1999] SASC 533 per Olsson, Debelle and Wicks JJ (at [32]):
'The general rule is that, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, a [...]

[Read more →]

In Nicholson v B&S [2000] VLPT 28, the Legal Profession Tribunal's Registrar Howell, considered three questions about the burden of proof:

Where there is a dispute about the amount of legal costs, must the client prove that the costs were too great, or must the lawyer prove that the costs were just right?
Where there is an [...]

[Read more →]

The Times has put online facsimiles of the original newspaper law reports of 200 classic cases which have been influential in moulding British law.  The Times Law Reports are actually to be found daily in The Times.  I met an urbane thong vendor in a small seaside village near Columbo once who read them religiously, [...]

[Read more →]

In retainers governed by the Legal Profession Act, 2004, failures to disclose matters which the Act requires to be disclosed about future legal costs can have the result that the solicitors may not recover their fees whether by proceedings or otherwise until they have been the subject of a solicitor-client taxation in the Supreme [...]

[Read more →]

Legal Services Commissioner v WP [2008] VCAT 983 was a guilty plea. A sole practitioner and ex-cop shared offices with a Turkish conveyancer named Dervish. The solicitor practised as a sole practitioner under the name "Thomasz and Dervish", even though Mr Dervish's only connection with the legal practice was that he shared premises [...]

[Read more →]

Update, 26 June 2008: The managing partner of the controversial NSW personal injury practice referred to below was fined $10,000 by the Administrative Decisions Tribunal's Legal Services List for advertising in contravention of conduct rules despite a prior warning from the Legal Services Commissioner.  One wonders whether any enquiry was entered into about how much [...]

[Read more →]

The Crown entered a nolle prosequi on Tuesday on the charges of giving false evidence against Melbourne's best known female criminal lawyer, Z G-W. In other words, they dropped the charges before trial for want of a reasonable prospect of conviction. The key witness was unable to remember crucial evidence which the Crown [...]

[Read more →]

Update: 25 October 2008: He died on 19 October 2008, still aged 100.
Original post: A solicitor who did not know how to use a telephone when he started work in the law, and who describes himself as the last of the last old style family solicitors, has renewed his practising certificate for his 101st year. [...]

[Read more →]

The latest lawyer profile in a weekend zine is the Sunday Age's portrait of a fundamentalist preacher cum solicitor cum property developer's stoush with some parishoners who say he allowed them to have a part of a property investment which would yield profits over the one year of the investment of 25% to 45%, only [...]

[Read more →]

Update, 20 November 2008: The latest decision is Pegasus Management Holdings S.C.A. v Ernst & Young (a firm) [2008] EWHC 2720 (Ch).  A CMS Cameron McKenna Law Now note may be read here.
Original post: The Law Institute is putting on a lecture at lunchtime on 24 June 2008 by an ex-megafirms lawyer who has [...]

[Read more →]