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. [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Taxations'
New cases
August 14th, 2010 · No Comments
Tags: Causation · Discipline · Misconduct · Negligence · Penalties privilege · Professional fees and disbursements · Taxations · amendment · costs · natural justice · procedure
Solicitors’ retainers have implied term of efficiency
July 30th, 2010 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Retainers · Taxations · The suit for fees · costs disputes
An application to tax costs out of time
July 26th, 2010 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Taxations
The 20% reduction in Worksafe case costs: what does it mean?
July 10th, 2010 · 1 Comment
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 [...]
Tags: Party party costs · Professional fees and disbursements · Taxations
Applications to waive fees are not party party costs
July 10th, 2010 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: Party party costs · Professional fees and disbursements · Taxations
Can you piggy-back the taxation of an old interim bill onto a taxation of a fresh final bill?
July 8th, 2010 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: Legal Profession Act · Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · Taxations
Orders for discovery in SA taxations
June 28th, 2010 · No Comments
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.
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · South Australia · Taxations
The Costs Court
June 17th, 2010 · 1 Comment
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 [...]
Tags: Party party costs · Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · Taxations
What is a ‘lump sum bill’?
May 2nd, 2010 · 5 Comments
In the law of legal costs, there has long been a distinction between a lump sum bill, of the kind generally given in the first instance by solicitors to clients with whom they have an ongoing working relationship, and an itemized bill which is usually given if a client wants a bit more detail in [...]
Tags: Professional fees and disbursements · Solicitor client bills of costs · Taxations · The suit for fees
No taxations of old-Act hourly rates costs agreements
April 14th, 2010 · No Comments
The Legal Practice Act, 1996 still governs costs agreements in matters where instructions were first given prior to 12 December 2005 and bills rendered pursuant to them, even after that date, which was the commencement date for the Legal Profession Act, 2004: see cl. 3.1(1) of the second schedule to the Legal Profession Act, 2004. [...]
Tags: Costs agreements · Professional fees and disbursements · Taxations · The suit for fees

