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 [...]
Entries Tagged as 'costs disclosure defaults'
The costs disclosure provisions in statutes regulating the profession are not codes
July 20th, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · costs disclosure defaults
Two costs disclosure default cases in VCAT
June 18th, 2008 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Retainers · costs disclosure defaults
Chakera v Kuzamanovic [2003] VSC 92
April 10th, 2008 · No Comments
Chakera v Kuzamanovic [2003] VSC 92 is a decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria's Justice Nettle in relation to the effect of a default under the costs disclosure regime under the Legal Practice Act, 1996. It stands for the proposition that in the case of complete non-compliance with the costs disclosure regime, the [...]
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · costs disclosure defaults
VCAT runs out of patience with serial adjourner
March 17th, 2008 · No Comments
I was drinking beer at The Peacock the other afternoon, and a VCAT member was muttering about the Supreme Court overturning VCAT decisions on the basis that applications for adjournment were not granted when they could have been cured by an order for costs. The suggestion was that the Court may have overlooked the [...]
Tags: Abuse of process · Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · VCAT · VCAT Act · costs disclosure defaults · costs disputes
VCAT cancels bill and leaves solicitor wholly unremunerated for sloppy work
March 4th, 2008 · 5 Comments
Praag v W & T Lawyers [2008] VCAT 307 was a rare thing: a case in VCAT's Legal Practice List actually prosecuted pursuant to the Legal Profession Act, 2004. Mr Praag was his late mother's executor. Before her death, she lived in Canberra. Her assets were a house in Canberra and [...]
Tags: "professional negligence" · Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · costs disclosure defaults
WARNING: costs agreements and bills require amendment
January 21st, 2008 · No Comments
Update, February 2008: the rate has increased from 8.75% to 9%. For more, see this post.
Original post: Since 6 December 2007, the maximum interest chargeable on bills has dropped from 12% (the penalty interest rate) to 8.75% (the Reserve Bank Target Rate +2%), and the period of non-payment after which you can begin charging [...]
Tags: Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · costs disclosure defaults
Sudden eruption of unconscionability amongst solicitors further documented
December 10th, 2007 · 2 Comments
Updated, 4 January 2008: See the underlined additions below (with thanks for the references to Jason Pizer's book at p. 246).
Original post: Now two unrepresented folk have managed to convince VCAT's Legal Practice List's Member Butcher in a Fair Trading Act, 1999 claim that yet another solicitor has been acting unconscionably towards his clients in [...]
Tags: Fair Trading Act · Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements · VCAT · costs disclosure defaults
Solicitor gets away with fees of $83,000 after estimating at $2,500 and never updating
November 28th, 2007 · No Comments
Ok, ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but the solicitor did put out a costs agreement and fee disclosure document which contained no estimate other than $2,500, and did charge $111,000, which was reduced on an assessment — a NSW privatised version of taxation — and did not provide any re-estimates before putting out [...]
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Taxations · costs disclosure defaults
Ways for lawyers to cope with costs disclosure defaults
October 10th, 2007 · No Comments
Under Victoria's Legal Profession Act, 2004 the most apparently draconian consequences follow for the slightest non-compliance with any of the elaborate pre-retainer disclosures required to be made by solicitors. Under s. 3.4.17, if the lawyer has not disclosed something required by the relevant bit of the Act to be disclosed:
the client 'need not pay [...]
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · costs disclosure defaults
Arbitrators slice $40 million off plaintiff lawyers' breast implant proceedings fees
July 20th, 2007 · No Comments
22 July Update: what may be the first ever legal blog, and without doubt one of the best, Overlawyered has a link to the arbitrator's ruling, and links to some old posts dealing with the interlocutory stages of the case. And here's Law.com's article.
Houston plaintiff lawyer John O'Quinn has been ordered to repay clients $40 [...]
Tags: Ethics · Fiduciary duties · Misconduct · Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · Taxations · costs disclosure defaults · gross overcharging · litigation ethics

