A Toronto judge has drastically reduced an elderly womanâs six-figure legal bill after finding her lawyer was unable to explain how he reached the amount.âNone of the respondentâs figures are credible; he was obviously making it all up as he went along,â Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan wrote in a July decision about the fee lawyer Lawrence Sax charged 92-year-old Eileen Newell.The judge also chastised the hearings officer at the Toronto assessment office, who had originally adjudicated the dispute over the legal bill, finding she demonstrated âinexplicable animusâ toward Newell.With Morganâs decision, Newell saw the $165,000 fee â which worked out to about $2,200 an hour for what her lawyer claimed was 75 hours of work handling the sale of a commercial building â cut down to just over $26,000.Newell had first taken her case against Sax to the assessment office, which handles disputes between lawyers and clients over their legal bills. Morgan was critical of the handling of Newellâs file by assessment officer Angelique Palmer. âThe assessment officer states candidly that âthe solicitor determined what his fees should be based on criteria that could not be demonstrated or explained to the court,ââ Morgan wrote. âDespite the shortcomings of (Saxâs) account and of his evidence in support of it, the assessment officer upheld the account as fully payable. While it is hard to fathom how this could occur, the assessment officerâs reasons do give some insight.âPalmer had noted in her decision that Newell, who was 91 at the time her bill was being assessed, did not attend the assessment hearing, although she was represented by a lawyer throughout the proceedings. âDespite the fact that the applicantâs non-attendance caused no delay in the proceeding, the assessment officer seems to have taken umbrage at the fact that the applicant was not present. I ...
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