Bain and Bain (No. 2)

In *Bain and Bain (No. 2)*, Hogan J considered an application concerning the provision of legal costs in family law proceedings. The dispute involved the husband's obligation to fund the wife's legal representation.

The court was required to determine the terms and conditions under which the husband would contribute to the wife's legal expenses. Specifically, the court had to address the timing and method of payments, the circumstances under which payments would be made, and how these payments were to be applied towards the wife's legal costs and disbursements, including those of accountants engaged for business valuations.

Hogan J reasoned that the wife should be adequately represented to ensure a fair hearing. The court ordered that the husband's obligation to pay would commence upon the wife engaging a solicitor and that solicitor filing and serving a notice of address for service. Payments were to be made either directly to the wife's solicitor within seven days of the husband paying his own legal accounts, or, if no payments were made by the husband in a calendar month, a sum of $5,500 was to be paid by the second day of the following month. Further provisions were made for situations where the husband engaged a solicitor with whom he had an interest, requiring funds to be held in trust and potentially paid to the wife's solicitor if not paid directly. The payments were to be applied towards the wife's costs and disbursements, including those of accountants.

The court reserved the question of the categorisation of payments and the costs of the application to the trial judge.