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

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Entries Tagged as 'setting aside costs agreements'

Solicitor’s equitable charge to secure fees declared void

October 19th, 2009 · No Comments

The plaintiff in Brott v Shtrambrandt [2009] VSC 467 is not having much luck.  First of all, he cut what he thought was a plea bargain in a professional misconduct prosecution only to have VCAT’s Legal Practice List increase by 50% the penalty he and the Law Insitute had agreed jointly to contend was appropriate, [...]

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Tags: Costs agreements · No win no fee · Professional fees and disbursements · Retainers · setting aside costs agreements

Procedure in applications to set aside costs agreements

August 9th, 2009 · No Comments

It costs about $290 to file an application to set aside a costs agreement under s. 3.4.32 of the Legal Profession Act, 2004 in VCAT.  It is not a step lightly to be taken.  Moreso than much of what goes on in VCAT, such applications are treated like litigation in a court.  Costs will be [...]

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Tags: Costs agreements · Professional fees and disbursements · VCAT · setting aside costs agreements

Applications to set aside costs agreements

September 24th, 2008 · No Comments

This post has been sitting around as a draft waiting to be finished.  There is little chance of that for a long time.  So here is my incomplete annotation to s. 103 of the Legal Practice Act, 1996.  That is the provision which gives VCAT (formerly the Legal Profession Tribunal) jurisdiction to set aside costs [...]

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Tags: Legal Practice Act · Professional fees and disbursements · Retainers · costs disclosure defaults · setting aside costs agreements

Nicholson v B&S — the first important Victorian decision about setting aside costs agreements

September 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

Nicholson v B&S [2000] VLPT 28 was the first decision to deal in detail with the principles which govern the extremely wide discretions granted by s. 103 of the old Legal Practice Act, 1996. Registrar Howell cancelled a costs agreement, and ordered that one of the bills the client challenged — the only one she [...]

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Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · costs disclosure defaults · setting aside costs agreements

Onus of proof in costs disputes between lawyers and clients

June 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment

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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Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · costs disputes · setting aside costs agreements

On blogging

February 15th, 2008 · 2 Comments

The other day, I did a very geeky thing which was also a bit unonline. I had a coffee with fellow lawyer blogger, the mysterious Legal Eagle. One result of the coffee was that somehow I charmed her into writing a second case note of interest to readers of this blog — this [...]

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Tags: Law Blogs · No win no fee · Professional fees and disbursements · Retainers · setting aside costs agreements

Cases, cases

December 15th, 2007 · No Comments

Update, 19 February 2008: Fellow Melbourne law blogger Legal Eagle has kindly written a case note on Equuscorp v Wilmoth Field Warne.
Update, 21 December 2007: Another two advocates’ immunity cases:
1. Symonds v Vass [2007] NSWSC 1274, 36,000 words, after nearly 3 weeks of trial. See Ysaiah Ross’s case note in his article [...]

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Tags: Admission · Advocates' Immunity · Barristers' immunity · Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements · Retainers · setting aside costs agreements

Confirmed: your client can privately prosecute you for misconduct

June 3rd, 2007 · No Comments

Acting President Bowman handed down a decision on Friday in Cedric Naylor’s Case [2007] VCAT 958 approving the existing practice of VCAT, and before it the Legal Profession Tribunal, of entertaining professional misconduct allegations against lawyers by their clients as part of applications to set aside costs agreements. Entertaining them, that is, outside the disciplinary [...]

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Tags: Discipline · Legal Practice Act · Misconduct · Professional fees and disbursements · Unsatisfactory conduct · civil-disciplinary interplay · jurisdiction · procedure · setting aside costs agreements

Texas Supreme Court strikes down contingency fee agreement provision

February 10th, 2007 · No Comments

In Hoover Slovacek LLP v. Walton, Supreme Court of Texas, 3 November 2006, the Court severed a provision in a contingency fee agreement which entitled the lawyer to three-tenths of the “present value of the claim” forthwith upon termination by the client, whether for just cause or not. Instead, the lawyer recovered three-tenths of the [...]

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Tags: No win no fee · Professional fees and disbursements · setting aside costs agreements

Roisin Annesley’s Victorian Barristers’ practice guide

October 29th, 2006 · No Comments

The Bar has produced a practice guide. It is a great achievement and stands as a beacon for the Law Institute’s future efforts at promulgating knowledge of the practice rules. The Bar actually has something called the Professional Standards Education Committee. Written by Roisin Annesley, it was launched by Victoria Marles, the Legal Services Commissioner [...]

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Tags: "professional negligence" · Book reviews · Discipline · Ethics · Legal Profession Act · Negligence · No win no fee · Professional fees and disbursements · Retainers · concurrent duties · conflicts · costs disclosure defaults · costs disputes · current client and past client · duties of confidentiality · duties regarding witnesses · duty and duty · duty and interest · duty to court · interest of associate · litigation ethics · procedure · setting aside costs agreements