In the County Court, certification of costs above scale is often important.  The maximum fee specified in the scale of costs for expenses of an expert witness was about $1,800 at the time relevant to Astbury v Wood [2009] VSCA 126; 23 VR 302.  There, a senior neurosurgeon had given viva voce evidence on behalf [...]

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Legal Services Commissioner v Dempsey [2010] QCA 197 is an unsuccessful appeal from a disciplinary prosecution in which findings of dishonesty were made. Dye v Fisher Cartwright Berriman Pty Ltd [2010] NSWSC 895 is a case in which an application for a costs assessment (NSW version of taxation) outside the allotted 12 month period succeeded. [...]

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In Michaels v Daley [2010] VCAT 1205, Senior Member Howell advised that: ’12    It usually is an implied term of the engagement of a legal practitioner, at hourly rates, that the work will be performed efficiently. It is an implied term of the kind that “goes without saying”, to adopt the phrase used by the [...]

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Ciaglia v Beilby Poulden Costello Pty Ltd [2010] NSWSC 748 is a decision of Justice McCallum. A client sacked his lawyers.  They sent a bill for about $30,000.  Through his new lawyers he did a deal with the old lawyers: in exchange for the delivery to his new lawyers of the old lawyers’ file, he [...]

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Section 134AB(29) of the Accident Compensation Act, 1985 means if injured workers win in proceedings under that Act, they get 20% less from the losing party towards the amount they have actually been charged by their lawyers than all other litigants. In Joaquim v FPI Vinyl Compounds Pty Ltd, Supreme Court of Victoria, unreported, 9 [...]

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In Joaquim v FPI Vinyl Compounds Pty Ltd, unreported, Supreme Court of Victoria, 9 July 2010, Costs Judge Wood held that solicitors’ assistance to poor clients in applying for waivers of court fees (filing fees, setting down fees and hearing fees in this case) are not fees which are properly claimed in a party-party bill [...]

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Under the Legal Profession Act, 2004, clients have a year to apply for taxation of their solicitor’s bill.  Before, it was 60 days, but it was easy to get an extension: s. 3.4.38(5).  Now, it’s longer, but it’s harder to get an extension: you have to make an application to a judge in the Practice [...]

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Here is a new decision from South Australia about the availability of discovery in a taxation of costs: Steicke v Donaldson Walsh Lawyers [2010] SASC 188.  Apparently, there is a big divorce case going on in which the wife has paid over $10 million in legal fees and the husband over $20 million.

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I have been remiss in not bringing to your attention the creation of the Costs Court, which came into operation at the beginning of this year.  It is in fact not really a new Court, in the sense that it is just a revamped division of the Supreme Court.  But the development means that the [...]

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A barrister rang me the other day in relation to what he probably thought was a simple question: if a lawyer settles a dispute about legal costs and then sues for specific performance, is it a ‘proceeding to recover legal costs’?  No, I said, but I could not find, on my blog, or anywhere else [...]

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