Legal Fee Horror Stories: Real Life Examples Where We Have Saved Our Client’s Thousands of Dollars

Being a law firm that specialises in helping people who have been overcharged by their lawyers, we have seen many cases where our clients have been taken advantage of. Whether that be a family law, commercial law, personal injury, or property dispute matter, the lawyer’s bills are the same.

We constantly see instances of double billing, overcharging for time spent drafting documents and sending emails, as well as using a barrister when the work could be done by a solicitor or law clerk. These are just some of the things we look for when we’re reviewing your lawyer’s bills!

We are based in Melbourne CBD; however, we can help people save money on their legal fees all across Australia. We have helped many of our clients saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in their legal fees, as well as recovering our own fees from the other side, so our clients are never out of pocket.

Here are just some examples where we have saved our client’s thousands of dollars in legal fees:

Massive 80% reduction in NSW commercial lawyer’s fees

We recently received three Certificates of Determination from the NSW Supreme Court that signified a pivotal moment in our client's journey and a remarkable victory against the odds.

The story begins with this: our client had hired a law firm for a professional negligence case in the NSW Supreme Court and a Federal Court case against a bank, expecting fair representation. However, the former lawyer had launched not one, but two cases, seeking to recover their costs. In response, we filed a third case against the solicitor to initiate a review of fees already paid.

The Costs Assessor ruled that the fees were "unjustifiably high". For the professional negligence case, which was stopped after a few months, a $47,000 bill was marked down to $27,000, equalling a 42% reduction.

In regards to the Federal Court case, there were two separate costs assessments:

• In the first, a $199,000 bill was cut down to $142,000—a 29% reduction.
• In the second, a $106,000 bill was slashed to $22,000—a massive 80% reduction.

This translates to a $161,000 reduction to the lawyer’s total fees of $352,000.

However, these results weren't the end of it. The solicitor was ordered to cover the filing fees of the costs assessments in the Supreme Court, the Costs Assessor's fee of around $17,000, and reimburse our client a portion of the fees paid to us to represent them.

Cutting legal costs from $500,000 to $430,000 in a fraud case – $70,000 Saved

Our client was charged over $500,000 for a commercial law dispute with a bank. Upon careful examination of the solicitor's cost agreement and invoices, we found several instances of unjust law practices. These included undisclosed increases in multiple hourly rates charged by lawyers within that firm, and occurrences of duplicated work between them. While their initial estimate of total legal costs was $10,000, they ended up charging 50 times more. Although this estimate was later updated, but not to the extent necessary.

Despite our efforts to negotiate a resolution, including participation in a Court-ordered mediation, the matter ultimately proceeded to an assessment by the Costs Court in Victoria, where we achieved a significant outcome. It was determined that the solicitor should have charged no more than $430,000, resulting in an over $70,000 reduction for our client. The law firm was also directed to cover our client's costs of assessment, which are the fees the client paid to us to take their former lawyer to Court.

From Overcharged to Overjoyed: Our Client Saves $180,000+ in Legal Fees

Our client approached us in July 2022 after being charged around $564,000 in legal fees for his liquidation, defamation and family law matters. The law firm had incorrectly filed debt recovery proceeding against our client (which was later dismissed), seeking payment of outstanding/ unpaid costs of $300,098.87. We immediately filed a summons for taxation in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Costs Court, seeking an assessment of the total costs charged by the law firm. After attending mediation and months of negotiations, we were able to get a result where our client only had to pay $120,000 instead of the $300,098.87 originally charged. Thus, representing savings of over $180,000 to our client.

And these are just 3 of our clients! We have saved hundreds more clients money on their lawyer’s bills. You could be the next client we save thousands of dollars!

If you think your lawyer has overcharged you, call us today on 1800 529 462 or send us an email at info@lawincheck.com.au.

Sources

https://www.lawincheck.com.au/nsw-certificate-of-determination/

https://www.lawincheck.com.au/commercial-law-bank-dispute/

https://www.lawincheck.com.au/from-overcharged-to-overjoyed/

See here for 5 tips to ensure your legal fees remain reasonable.