Western Australian Numbered Acts Western Australian Numbered Acts (1) Subject to any
costs agreement made in accordance with Division 6 or the corresponding
provision of a corresponding law, section 306 and the
Legal Aid Commission Act 1976 section 14 —
(a) the
taxation of bills of law practices; and
(b) any
other aspect of the costs charged by law practices,
is regulated by an
applicable costs determination.
(2) 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 all or any 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.
(3) Nothing in
subsection (1) is to be construed as limiting the power of a court, a
judicial officer or a taxing officer of a court to determine in any particular
case before that court or judicial officer the amount of costs allowed.
(4) If a costs
determination is in force in respect of any business referred to in
section 275(1), any other 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.