Stephen Warne on professional negligence, regulation and discipline around the world

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Entries Tagged as 'Professional fees and disbursements'

Informal service of lawyers’ bills

June 22nd, 2009 · Comments

Recently, the County Court’s Practice Court accepted that where a client admitted having received a bill given by email, service in accordance with the Legal Practice Act, 1996 had been effected, so that various deadlines which are counted from that date then commenced to run.  That is so even though the commencement of the running [...]

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Tags: Legal Practice Act · Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements

From when can solicitors claim interest on an unpaid bill?

June 7th, 2009 · Comments

Under s. 95 the Legal Practice Act, 1996, interest was chargeable on bills of costs from the period from 30 days after payment is demanded until the bill is paid.  But what does it mean?  Does interest start to run 3o days after (i) the date of the bill, (ii) the day it was posted, [...]

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Tags: Legal Practice Act · Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs

Giant solicitors’ lien case

June 5th, 2009 · Comments

The Supreme Court of NSW recently delivered a giant decision about a solicitor’s costs agreement and a fight over the right to possession of the solicitor’s file.  Acting Justice Debelle’s reasons in PM Sulcs & Associates Pty Ltd v Oliveri [2009] NSWSC 456 exceed 33,333 words.  Ultimately, his Honour found there was no costs agreements, with [...]

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Tags: Costs agreements · Liens · Professional fees and disbursements · The suit for fees

Distinguishing between civil and disciplinary complaints

June 4th, 2009 · Comments

In the latest Byrne v Marles ([2009] VSC 210), Justice Beach seems to have found that any particular allegation made by a complainant may properly be characterised as both a civil and a disciplinary complaint.  If the Legal Services Commissioner receives a complaint, she must investigate it to the extent it is a disciplinary complaint [...]

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Tags: Discipline · Legal Services Commissioner · Professional fees and disbursements · civil-disciplinary interplay · costs disputes

Termination of a no-win no-fee retainer

May 18th, 2009 · Comments

Mr Burmingham is the subject of three posts already.  They dealt with three discrete aspects of his case, Maurice B Pty Ltd v Burmingham [2009] VSC 20: a titillating detail, advocates’ immunity, and the nature of the suit for fees.  But his case was really mostly about what happens when a no-win no-fee costs agreement [...]

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Tags: No win no fee · Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · Taxations · The suit for fees · costs disputes

The suit for fees

May 18th, 2009 · Comments

One might imagine the suit for fees to be the simplest legal claim there is.  But there seems to be great confusion about what the elements of the claim are,  what defences are available, and the relationship of the suit with a taxation, or the failure to exercise a right of taxation. If anyone has [...]

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Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Taxations · The suit for fees

Advocates’ immunity as a shield to defences in suits for fees

March 30th, 2009 · Comments

Maurice B Pty Ltd v Burmingham [2009] VSC 20 was a suit by lawyers against a former client for unpaid fees.  The fees were for representing the former client in litigation.  The client did not counterclaim for professional negligence.  He did allege negligence in his defence, however. He did so with a view to showing [...]

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Tags: Advocates' Immunity · Professional fees and disbursements · Taxations · The suit for fees

The disgruntled beneficiary and the executor’s lawyer

March 15th, 2009 · Comments

Imagine this.  A beneficiary thinks a trustee is diminshing the trust estate by spending too much on lawyers. They have no standing to seek a taxation of the trustee’s solicitor’s bill, and the trustee’s solicitor’s file is unavailable to them by virtue of legal professional privilege enjoyed by the trustee.  The beneficiary has no contractual [...]

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Tags: Duties to third parties · Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements · Retainers · costs disputes

Beak bribe boast bars barro

February 4th, 2009 · Comments

Legal Services Commissioner v JDG [2008] LPT 17 is a shocking case in which a Queensland barrister was struck off after he lied when confronted by investigators with the true proposition that he had offered to pay a $50,000 bribe to a Magistrate or Crown prosecutor on behalf of a client.  He also took $59,000 [...]

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Tags: "disgraceful and dishonourable" · Discipline · Legal Profession Act · Misconduct · Negligence · Professional fees and disbursements · Striking off · Trust money · common law · trust monies

The lien and the solicitor who finds himself practising certificateless

November 27th, 2008 · Comments

Update: More solicitors’ lien cases: Magnamain Investments Pty Ltd v Baker Johnson Lawyers [2008] QSC 245, and Stark v Dennett [2007] QSC 171, a case about who should be taken to have terminated the retainer and which sets out the law thoroughly.

Original post: As I have already noted in these pages, Issac B was [...]

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Tags: Liens · Practising certificates · Professional fees and disbursements