Source:
TR EMERITUS
Would SMC have paid $1M fees to MP Yeo’s law firm?
July 5th, 2014 | Author: Editorial
Lawyer and PAP MP Alvin Yeo
On Wednesday (2 Jul), the news of lawyer Alvin Yeo being 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 case against Dr Susan Lim. He is also a PAP MP for Chua Chu Kang GRC.
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.
As Dr Lim had to pay everything from her own pocket, she decided to scrutinize all the bills from WongPartnership closely.
After scrutinizing the bills, 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.
Unhappy with the fees which Mr Yeo’s law firm charged SMC, Dr Lim filed notices of dispute for all the bills before a taxation hearing, since Dr Lim had to pay all of SMC’s legal fees as ordered by the court. The fees amounted to some $1 million.
A taxation hearing essentially takes place when the legal bills submitted by the winning party of a lawsuit are disputed. A taxing registrar will be appointed to decide on the matter.
In Dr Lim’s case, the assistant registrar at the taxation hearing actually slashed WongPartnership’s total bill charges from $1 million to $340,000. What followed was Alvin Yeo and his co-lawyer 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 is still far below the original $1 million.
With the High Court’s judgment, Dr Lim’s husband later complained to the Law Society against Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho for overcharging. In the past, lawyers have faced disciplinary action for overcharging their clients [
Link].
An interesting question arises out of this saga. Supposing the court had ruled instead that each side should pay its own legal costs, would SMC also scrutinize WongPartnership’s bills as closely as Dr Lim did? Would SMC then file notices of dispute for all WongPartnership’s bills before a taxation hearing too?
Or would the officials in SMC, which is a statutory board under the Ministry of Health, simply pay the almost $1 million legal fees to Alvin Yeo’s law firm with no questions asked?
What do you think?