Justice Peter Young, the Chief Judge in Equity of New South Wales, has warned estate lawyers “that if they continue to ravage estates by charging high legal costs, judges will step in and cap costs” and “that their fees may be in doubt if they allow big bills to be run up by ‘claimants [who] are not particularly concerned about how much they get out of the estate as long as they ruin it for everybody else’.” In his warning, published in the latest Law Society Journal, Justice Young cited “a case in April where a son had claimed against his father’s $240,000 estate. The estate paid the son’s legal costs – $40,000 – as well as its own $16,000 bill. The son ended up receiving a $60,000 legacy from the estate.” Also arousing public ire of late have been a case last week in which “a woman was awarded a $60,000 legacy from her father’s $1.5 million estate, with Supreme Court Master John McLaughlin commenting that the costs were ‘excessive’: $74,500 for the woman and $130,000 for the estate”, as well as the case reported in this space Feb. 18-19, 2002, in which lawyers’ fees ate up $112,000 of a $154,000 estate, leaving only around $30,000 for the contending parties. (Leonie Lamont, “‘Sloppy’ lawyers warned their costs may be capped”, Sydney Morning Herald, Jul. 28).

Filed under: Australia, family law