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‘Dishonest and disgraceful’: Hobart solicitor ordered to repay over $14k to clients
The Supreme Court of Tasmania has ordered a Hobart-based solicitor to pay over $40,000 in repayments and legal fees after he significantly overcharged clients.
Lauren Croft
According to a judgement published by the Supreme Court, the Hobart lawyer “grossly overcharged” clients for a $2,000 conveyancing job, instead charging them $14,543. The practitioner was ordered by Justice Gregory Geason to repay the fee, plus $28,000 in legal costs.
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After hearing evidence from the Legal Profession Board of Tasmania, the Law Society of Tasmania and another lawyer, the Hobart lawyer’s conduct was determined by the court to be “dishonest and disgraceful”.
The case was brought after the Legal Profession Board of Tasmania received a complaint in August 2018 from clients of the practitioner, with respect to the costs involved in the sale and purchase of two different properties.
According to the decision, “they considered the fees charged for the professional work to be excessive. They had contacted the practitioner about the quantum of his fees. They very politely indicated some ‘confusion’ with respect to them.”
“The fees were in the amount of $16,590.00. They observed that the fee for the lawyer engaged by the other party to one of the transactions was in the amount of $1,223.64. They thought this ‘was a significant difference’.”
The Hobart practitioner proceeded to write a “lengthy” email explaining his fees, which Justice Geason determined was “dishonest” and “directed towards dissuading his clients from taking further action with respect to the quantum of his fees, and, securing payment of them”.
“There can be no question that the conduct engaged in by the practitioner constituted professional misconduct at common law and the court so held. It was, as I have said, dishonest, and disgraceful, as evidenced by the scale of the overcharging and the attempt to mislead the clients as to the reasons for it,” he said in the decision.
“Those attempts disguised the truth and were calculated to discourage any further action by the clients, a course which exploited the solicitor/client relationship, and the trust that had developed over a period of time.”
The court noted that the practitioner had admitted to misconduct, apologised to his clients and ordered him to repay them $14,542.91 within 30 days and pay the board’s costs of $28,000 within 45 days.
Although, as Justice Geason noted in his decision, the practitioner has since retired, “such conduct constitutes a fundamental breach of the professional obligations owed to a client. It squarely [raises] issues of a practitioner’s suitability to continue in practice”.
“In such cases an order striking off a practitioner may be necessary in order to protect the public,” he said.
