MULLALY & MULLALY

The parties to this proceeding were Mullaly & Mullaly, a firm of solicitors, and the respondent, who was a former client of the firm. The dispute concerned the firm's entitlement to charge professional fees for work undertaken on behalf of the client. The matter came before Watts J in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the solicitors had breached their duty to their client by failing to provide a costs agreement that complied with the requirements of the *Legal Profession Act 2004* (Vic). Specifically, the Court had to determine if the absence of a compliant costs agreement rendered the firm's claim for fees unenforceable.

Watts J reasoned that the *Legal Profession Act 2004* (Vic) imposed strict requirements for the form and content of costs agreements. The Court found that the agreement in question did not meet these requirements, and therefore, the solicitors were not entitled to recover their fees on the basis of that agreement. The Court applied the principle that a failure to comply with statutory provisions regarding costs agreements can have significant consequences for a legal practitioner's ability to recover fees.

Consequently, Watts J ordered that Mullaly & Mullaly were not entitled to recover the costs claimed from their former client.