Hill v The Council of the Law Society of the Act (No 2)

In *Hill v The Council of the Law Society of New South Wales (No 2)*, the appellant sought an order for his costs of a hearing and an appeal to be paid by the respondent. The appeal itself was ultimately dismissed.

The central legal issue before the court was whether it was appropriate to make a costs order in favour of the appellant, despite his partial success on some issues, given that the appeal was ultimately unsuccessful. The court was required to consider the principles governing the award of costs in circumstances where a party achieves some but not complete success.

The court reasoned that a successful party should generally be awarded costs unless there is a good reason to depart from that principle. In this instance, the court found no such good reason to deprive the respondent of its costs. Consequently, the court ordered that the appellant pay the respondent’s costs of the appeal and the cross-appeal.