Federal Court says Jarndyce v Jarndyce is to be kept front of mind by Costs...
For some reason I have agreed to give a seminar on the ethics of billing by the hour, one of those topics so big that I have until now avoided tinkering around the edges of it. My distinguished...
View ArticleMore on the indemnity principle
Up in NSW, the system of reviewing legal costs is very different from here in Victoria. It is done on the papers by non-judges. As District Court Judge Peter Johnstone said in Bellevarde...
View ArticleMisconduct and Costs
I’m giving a seminar on Wednesday: see http://bit.ly/npDJVY. I’m talking about Misconduct and Costs. The Supreme Court of Victoria’s Costs Judge, Associate Justice Jamie Wood, is talking about best...
View ArticleClient joy to abound in draft national profession legislation’s costs provisions
For a long time after the new national profession legislation is introduced, if it is introduced in its present form, many lawyers are likely to find themselves restricted to charging scale, and not...
View ArticleSolicitors’ exposure to falling between two stools in solicitor-client...
Update, 16.2.12: See now Ipex ITG Pty Ltd v McGarvie [2011] VSC 675. Original post: A recent decision of the Supreme Court’s Costs Court means that solicitors have only a non-extendable 60 days in...
View ArticleThe Keddies overcharging civil case no. 1
Liu v Barakat, unreported, District Court of NSW, Curtis J, 8 November 2011 is the latest in an ongoing scandal in NSW in relation to overcharging by a prominent personal injuries practice which traded...
View ArticleAccord and satisfaction as a defence to a suit for taxation
[Edited and updated 13.2.12] I have two taxations at the moment where accord and satisfaction is pleaded as a defence, in proceedings governed by the Legal Profession Act 2004 (Vic). In the first, the...
View ArticleParty-party recovery of pre-proceedings costs
Her Honour Davies J considered the recoverability of pre-action costs in the context of an application for security for costs. The defendant sought security for $1 million already expended prior to...
View ArticleWhen does the 12 months in which to seek taxation commence?
In Victoria, solicitors have only a non-extendable 60 days in which to seek taxation of counsel’s fees, but clients have 12 months in which to seek taxation of solicitors’ fees, and clients other than...
View ArticleLimit on the unrecoverability of unusual expenses principle in Victoria
I had to read Abrahams v Wainwright Ryan [1998] VSC 335; [1999] 1 VR 102 from start to finish recently. I noticed the paragraph the subject of this post which, it seems to me, might be useful in...
View ArticleFree tickets to a great seminar
I’m chairing what should be a great seminar for litigators at Melbourne’s RACV Club on 28 August 2013. Judicial Registrar Meg Gourlay who is one of the two decision makers who is handling most of the...
View ArticleReviews of decisions of the Costs Court’s Judicial Registrar
The Costs Judge recently clarified the procedure for seeking review of a decision of a Judicial Registrar on a preliminary point of law in a taxation of costs in the Costs Court. Essentially, his...
View ArticleUnqualified costs consultants
There has been another challenge to the legality of the work done by non-lawyer costs consultants. It did not go anywhere because of deficiencies in the way the client (himself a lawyer) went about...
View ArticleTransitional arrangements for costs provisions of Legal Profession Uniform Law
Misinformation about the transitional provisions for the new law regulating legal practice set to commence on 1 July 2015 is circulating around the Bar. Most people seem to understand that the...
View ArticleWhen can lawyers contract out of taxation? (part 1)
Often enough, lawyers would love to avoid having their costs taxed. Under the repealed but still operative Legal Profession Act 2004, lawyers could contract out in advance of the obligation to have...
View ArticleWhen can lawyers contract out of taxation? (part 2)
This is part 2 of a post about in what circumstances lawyers can avoid having their fees scrutinised by the Supreme Court by the process traditionally known as ‘taxation’, but more recently also...
View ArticleWhen can lawyers contract out of taxation (part 3)
This is part 3 of a post about the circumstances in which lawyers can avoid having their fees taxed. Parts 1 and 2 are here and here. In GLS v Goodman Group Pty Ltd [2015] VSC 627, Macaulay J held...
View ArticleMan fails to set aside compromise of taxation of costs despite drunkenness...
A man took 5 times his usual dose of phenergan for his excema before a mediation in a Costs Court matter in which he sought to tax his former solicitor’s fees. Represented by a solicitor, he settled...
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Applications to extend time to tax lawyers’ bills: keep ’em tight
Many disputes about costs are still governed by the Legal Profession Act 2004. It specified as the time in which to seek taxation a period of 12 months. Where a bill is given, the 12 month period...
View ArticleAdvocates’ immunity: at once more powerful and narrower than most yet understand
Advocates’ immunity was, until recently, more powerful than many lawyers were aware. Since the 1 July 2015 introduction of the Legal Profession Uniform Law and the High Court’s May 2016 decision in...
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