Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) The following are
regulated by an applicable costs determination —
(a) the
taxation of bills of law practices;
(b) any
other aspect of the costs charged by law practices.
(2) Subsection (1) is
subject to —
(a) any
costs agreement made in accordance with the Legal Profession Uniform Law (WA)
Part 4.3 Division 4 or the corresponding provision of a corresponding law; and
(b)
section 146; and
(c) the
Legal Aid Commission Act 1976 section 14.
Note for this subsection:
See the
Civil Liability Act 2002 section 15L and the Motor Vehicle (Third Party
Insurance) Act 1943 section 27A, which affect costs under particular
agreements between a law practice and client.
(3) Despite subsection
(1), if a court or judicial officer is of the opinion that the amount of costs
allowable in respect of a matter under a costs determination is inadequate
because of the unusual difficulty, complexity or importance of the matter, the
court or officer may do any or all of the following —
(a)
order the payment of costs above those fixed by the determination;
(b) fix
higher limits of costs than those fixed in the determination;
(c)
remove limits on costs fixed in the determination;
(d) make
any order or give any direction for the purposes of enabling costs above those
in the determination to be ordered or assessed.
(4) Subsection (1)
does not limit the power of a court, a judicial officer or a taxing officer of
a court to determine in any particular case before that court, judicial
officer or taxing officer the amount of costs allowed.
(5) If a costs
determination is in force in respect of any business referred to in
section 133(1), any subsidiary legislation fixing or purporting to regulate
the remuneration of law practices in respect of that kind of business is of no
force or effect.