Blue Ribbon Legal recently acted for a defendant ordered to pay costs of District Court proceedings in NSW.
The plaintiff served an application for assessment claiming approximately $200,000 in legal costs plus interest, relying on tax invoices issued to the plaintiff by its legal representatives.
Blue Ribbon Legal prepared detailed objections on behalf of the defendant, identifying costs which were not within the scope of the court orders and other grounds of objection.
After objections were served, the plaintiff reduced its claim by $32,000 – conceding that some of the disputed charges were not payable by the defendant.
The assessor allowed legal costs totalling $86,000 plus interest.
The grounds referred to in the assessor’s reasons for reducing or disallowing charges include:
The assessor ordered the plaintiff to pay the defendant’s costs of preparing objections, as well as the assessor’s fees.
After deducting these amounts, the plaintiff recovered approximately $98,000 in legal costs.
The plaintiff subsequently lodged an application for review of the assessor’s determination. The Review Panel substituted its own determination in place of the assessor’s, making further reductions totalling $9,000 and ordering the plaintiff to pay the review costs.
Blue Ribbon Legal’s expert objections resulted in a reduction of over $110,000 in the amount payable by the defendant at first instance, and our fees for preparing the objections were allowed in full as an offset.
If you would like more information on preparing objections to a bill of costs, check out our website or contact our office on (02) 8599 3100.
