In a long-wnded way, I tentatively suggest that, so long as the applicant has the sense to invoke s. 108 of the Fair Trading Act, 1999, then penalty interest is available under the Supreme Court Act, 1986, just like in the Supreme Court, so long as the dispute is a consumer-trader dispute. That is, a [...]

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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 [...]

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In Nicholson v B&S [2000] VLPT 28, the Legal Profession Tribunal's Registrar Howell considered whether the costs disclosure provisions of the Legal Practice Act, 1996 constituted a code which demonstrated an intention of the parliament to displace the common law. 'Nope', he said:
'I have considered whether the provisions of Division 1 of Part 4 of [...]

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In VCAT's Legal Practice List the other day, defending a firm alleged to have charged too much at the rate of $230 an hour, I made the point in cross-examination that London tax silks were wont to charge £600 per hour. As I uttered the words, I was visited by self-doubt. The amount sounded [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Slobodan Catovic did not want to pay his solicitor's bill. He misconceivedly invoked the Legal Profession Act, 2004 provision which allows clients to apply to set aside costs agreements, but that is not what he wanted to do. Senior Member Howell satisfied himself that Mr Catovic had intended to bring an application under [...]

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This post is like a case book(let) rather than a text. It sets out the raw materials which bear upon the question of who as between solicitor and client owns (in the sense of is entitled to the original of) what documents typically found in a solicitor's file. It is very long, and largely unsummarised: [...]

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