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source: http://www.tremeritus.com/2014/07/03/st-avoids-mentioning-alvin-yeo-is-a-pap-mp/
Yesterday, the news of lawyer Alvin Yeo accused of overcharging went public (‘MP & lawyer Alvin Yeo accused of overcharging‘).
He was one of the lawyers representing the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) in the court case against Dr Susan Lim. When Dr Lim lost her case, she was ordered to pay the SMC’s costs, including the legal fees of Alvin Yeo’s law firm, WongPartnership LLP.
While scrutinizing the legal bills of WongPartnership, Dr Lim and her husband alleged that WongPartnership was overcharging. In fact, in one of the bills, it was alleged that the fees of Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho amounted to $100,000 per hour of court hearing.
Later, Dr Lim filed notices of dispute for all the bills from WongPartnership, which amounted to some $1 million, before a taxation hearing. The assistant registrar at the hearing disagreed with the $1 million bill and slashed WongPartnership’s total bill charges to $340,000 instead.
Unhappy with the decision made at the taxation hearing, Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho then applied to the High Court to review the assistant registrar’s decision. The High Court Judge, Justice Woo Bih Li, eventually raised the charges allowed from $340,000 to $370,000, which was still far below the original $1 million.
With the judgment from High Court, Dr Lim’s husband later complained to the Law Society against Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho for overcharging. What happened next was that the review committee of Law Society actually dismissed the complaint against Alvin Yeo, as lacking in substance. It based its decision on WongPartnership’s assertion that Alvin Yeo was not involved in the preparation of the bills, and that there was therefore no misconduct on his part.
Dr Lim’s husband is now applying for a judicial review before the High Court, of the decision made by Law Society’s review committee. He is asking the court to quash the review committee’s decision and appoint a new committee to review the complaint against Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho again.
ST reported the same news today (‘Surgeon Susan Lim’s husband launches new court action’, 3 Jul). However, it avoided mentioning that lawyer Alvin Yeo is actually the same PAP MP of Chua Chu Kang GRC. ST only mentioned his name once in its article:
“Mr Deepak Sharma, a 60-year-old retired banker who is funding his wife’s case, has asked the High Court to conduct a judicial review of a Law Society committee’s decision to dismiss most of his complaints that Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo and Ms Melanie Ho had overcharged his wife, who was ordered to pay the SMC’s legal costs.”
In fact, the Parliament website shows that Alvin Yeo is the Managing Partner of WongPartnership [Link]:
In other words, he is one of the bosses of WongPartnership.
Lawyers were disciplined in the past for overcharging
A lawyer who overcharges his client can face disciplinary action. In Nov 2012, two lawyers were suspended for three months for overcharging their client. The penalty was handed by 3 Judges of Appeal. They backed the findings of a disciplinary tribunal against the 2 errant lawyers, Ang and Decruz [Link].
In the Ang and Decruz’s case, it was the Law Society which brought the charges against them. They had grossly inflated the bills to about $566,000 when a taxation hearing showed that the amount should have been $170,000.
The judge who delivered the judgement against Ang and Decruz, pointed out that the level of overcharging amounted to “grossly improper conduct”.
He said the lawyers have “an overriding duty to charge fairly” and stressed that the final bill “must not be grossly disproportionate to the time spent” on the matter.
He added their conduct is “redolent of dishonesty and deceit, and threatens to bring the legal profession into disrepute”.
“Such conduct must be regarded as grossly improper,” he said.
The judge noted that the total fees charged are three to four times more than the total amount eventually awarded after the taxation hearing. In absolute figures, the total difference was around $400,000.
“Such a huge difference in the figures can only be regarded as egregious and can hardly be justified,” the judge said.
Alvin Yeo spoke only once in Parliament last year
A search on the Parliament website [Link] showed that Alvin Yeo only spoke once in Parliament last year:
In contrast, new MP Lee Li Lian from WP spoke at least 30 times last year:
source: http://www.tremeritus.com/2014/07/03/st-avoids-mentioning-alvin-yeo-is-a-pap-mp/
Yesterday, the news of lawyer Alvin Yeo accused of overcharging went public (‘MP & lawyer Alvin Yeo accused of overcharging‘).
He was one of the lawyers representing the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) in the court case against Dr Susan Lim. When Dr Lim lost her case, she was ordered to pay the SMC’s costs, including the legal fees of Alvin Yeo’s law firm, WongPartnership LLP.
While scrutinizing the legal bills of WongPartnership, Dr Lim and her husband alleged that WongPartnership was overcharging. In fact, in one of the bills, it was alleged that the fees of Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho amounted to $100,000 per hour of court hearing.
Later, Dr Lim filed notices of dispute for all the bills from WongPartnership, which amounted to some $1 million, before a taxation hearing. The assistant registrar at the hearing disagreed with the $1 million bill and slashed WongPartnership’s total bill charges to $340,000 instead.
Unhappy with the decision made at the taxation hearing, Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho then applied to the High Court to review the assistant registrar’s decision. The High Court Judge, Justice Woo Bih Li, eventually raised the charges allowed from $340,000 to $370,000, which was still far below the original $1 million.
With the judgment from High Court, Dr Lim’s husband later complained to the Law Society against Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho for overcharging. What happened next was that the review committee of Law Society actually dismissed the complaint against Alvin Yeo, as lacking in substance. It based its decision on WongPartnership’s assertion that Alvin Yeo was not involved in the preparation of the bills, and that there was therefore no misconduct on his part.
Dr Lim’s husband is now applying for a judicial review before the High Court, of the decision made by Law Society’s review committee. He is asking the court to quash the review committee’s decision and appoint a new committee to review the complaint against Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho again.
ST reported the same news today (‘Surgeon Susan Lim’s husband launches new court action’, 3 Jul). However, it avoided mentioning that lawyer Alvin Yeo is actually the same PAP MP of Chua Chu Kang GRC. ST only mentioned his name once in its article:
“Mr Deepak Sharma, a 60-year-old retired banker who is funding his wife’s case, has asked the High Court to conduct a judicial review of a Law Society committee’s decision to dismiss most of his complaints that Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo and Ms Melanie Ho had overcharged his wife, who was ordered to pay the SMC’s legal costs.”
In fact, the Parliament website shows that Alvin Yeo is the Managing Partner of WongPartnership [Link]:
In other words, he is one of the bosses of WongPartnership.
Lawyers were disciplined in the past for overcharging
A lawyer who overcharges his client can face disciplinary action. In Nov 2012, two lawyers were suspended for three months for overcharging their client. The penalty was handed by 3 Judges of Appeal. They backed the findings of a disciplinary tribunal against the 2 errant lawyers, Ang and Decruz [Link].
In the Ang and Decruz’s case, it was the Law Society which brought the charges against them. They had grossly inflated the bills to about $566,000 when a taxation hearing showed that the amount should have been $170,000.
The judge who delivered the judgement against Ang and Decruz, pointed out that the level of overcharging amounted to “grossly improper conduct”.
He said the lawyers have “an overriding duty to charge fairly” and stressed that the final bill “must not be grossly disproportionate to the time spent” on the matter.
He added their conduct is “redolent of dishonesty and deceit, and threatens to bring the legal profession into disrepute”.
“Such conduct must be regarded as grossly improper,” he said.
The judge noted that the total fees charged are three to four times more than the total amount eventually awarded after the taxation hearing. In absolute figures, the total difference was around $400,000.
“Such a huge difference in the figures can only be regarded as egregious and can hardly be justified,” the judge said.
Alvin Yeo spoke only once in Parliament last year
A search on the Parliament website [Link] showed that Alvin Yeo only spoke once in Parliament last year:
In contrast, new MP Lee Li Lian from WP spoke at least 30 times last year:
