Guest Supplies Intl Limited v Spector Constant & Williams Limited
[2024] EWHC 2450 (SCCO)
Jugmohan Boodia & Anor v Richard John Slade
21 November 2023
[2023] EWHC 2963 (KB)
High Court
Solicitors sent their clients bills regularly. The clients claimed the bills were invalid because they hadn't been properly warned about the consequences of not challenging the bills in time. The court said that the contract was clear enough, but allowed the clients another chance to argue that the contract was unfair under consumer protection laws.
Key Facts
- •Appeal against Costs Judge James's judgments dated 24 August 2022 and 18 May 2023.
- •Dispute between solicitors (Respondent) and former clients (Appellants) regarding detailed assessment proceedings under section 70 of the Solicitors Act 1974.
- •Appellants challenged the validity of interim statutory bills, arguing lack of informed consent and breaches of consumer protection legislation.
- •Retainer agreement dated 24 January 2013 allowed for monthly interim bills, deemed final for the period.
- •Key issue: Whether informed consent was required for valid interim statutory bills and whether consumer protection legislation applied.
Legal Principles
Contractual interpretation: A clear contractual term reserving the right to deliver interim statutory bills is sufficient, without needing to explain the legal consequences.
Erlam v Richard Slade [2022] Costs LR 489
Implied terms: A term will only be implied if necessary to give business efficacy to the contract or if it's so obvious it goes without saying.
Yoo Design Services Limited v Iliv Realty Pte Limited [2021] EWCA Civ 560
Issue estoppel, waiver, and abuse of process (Henderson v Henderson): A party generally should raise all reasonably available points at the first opportunity. Raising them later may be barred.
Henderson v Henderson (1843) 3 Hare 100
Solicitors' Code of Conduct: Compliance is mandatory under s. 176(1) of the Legal Services Act 2007, but doesn't automatically create coterminous contractual obligations.
Legal Services Act 2007, s. 176(1)
Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999: These regulations may apply to solicitor-client contracts, but their application in this case was considered too late.
Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008; Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999
Outcomes
Appeal on the informed consent ground dismissed.
The retainer contained a clear and unambiguous term allowing for interim statutory bills; informed consent wasn't required.
Permission to appeal granted on the consumer protection issue.
While the Costs Judge's decision to bar the consumer protection arguments on res judicata grounds was arguably correct, sufficient grounds exist to warrant a full appeal.