The Australian Professional Liability Blog
Stephen Warne on professional negligence, regulation and discipline around the world
An Appeal Tribunal within the ACT Administrative Tribunal has put out a neat little decision which makes clear that where solicitors do work and bill it, where the client does not seek taxation within the time for doing so, and the solicitors sue for fees, the tribunal hearing the suit for fees still has, in …
Under the Legal Profession Act 2004, if a lawyer applied for renewal of their practising certificate prior to the expiry of the old one, but a decision was not made before the old one runs out, the certificate is extended until either it is renewed or a decision to refuse renewal is finally determined by …
Continue reading “The extended duration of the un-renewed practising certificate”
Lawyers are the only litigants who are entitled to recover from the counterparty in litigation costs for representing themselves: Guss v Veenhuizen (No 2) (1976) 136 CLR 47. Suing the client for fees can therefore be a nice little earner for lawyers. There is a species of lawyer whose suits for fees are conducted in …
Continue reading “Special responsibilities of lawyers as litigants”
Solicitors who are parties to litigation and don’t hire other solicitors to represent them are the only people who are generally entitled to claim legal costs from the losing party even though they don’t have to pay lawyers anything. Engaging in litigation involving themselves is therefore a profitable activity if they win. The principle dates …
Continue reading “Solicitor litigants’ entitlement to costs”
In Winn v GHB [2007] VSC 360, a barrister was personally a party in some litigation. She was admitted in Victoria but at the relevant time was practising in Brisbane under a Queensland practising certificate. She taxed her solicitors’ fees, and acted for herself. She appealed successfully from the order of the Taxing Master. She …
Continue reading “Unrepresented barristers’ entitlement to costs in cases involving them personally”
Update: 9 February 2008: A good wrap up of the American debate here at Legal Blog Watch. Original post: In Wentworth v Rogers [2006] NSWCA 145, the NSW Court of Appeal seemed to pave the way for a future declaration as to the efficacity of a costs agreement that says the solicitor will get paid …
Law Institute of Victoria v SA [2006] VCAT 742 A solicitor’s prima facie sound argument — that the indemnity principle at the heart of the common law’s costs jurisprudence meant that the Law Institute should not be entitled to its in-house solicitor’s costs of the prosecution — failed. The reason: because the LIV was engaging …