This month’s newsletter looks the new Legal Profession Uniform Law and some of the issues recently considered, including – the time limit to apply for Assessment, the pitfalls of the late delivery of costs disclosure and the application of the statutory limitation periods to a client’s action to recover overpaid costs.

There are now two regimes which govern the awarding of interest on costs under the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) (“CPA”). In this month’s newsletter we explore the different regimes that apply and when they apply.

The New South Wales Court of Appeal has recently considered the question of whether pre-judgment interest should be taken into account in determining whether costs are capped under the maximum costs provisions of the Legal Profession Act 2004 .

A new Rule 72A of the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015 relating to non disclosure of legal costs. We review new case law and identify some further important consequences of non disclosure.

The court recently considered an application by solicitors for funds paid into court, to be paid out to them to the extent of their unpaid legal fees.

The application was dismissed with the court ordering that the funds remain in court until assessment of the firm’s costs.

The court recently considered an application, under section 341 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW), to lift the limit imposed by section 338 of that act, on the amount of legal costs claimable in respect of legal services provided where damages recovered do not exceed $100,000.00.