New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Conditional fee agreement

Legal area

Court

15 Nov 2023

MORRISON v FINANCIAL MARKETS AUTHORITY [2023] NZHC 3215

Citation

[2023] NZHC 3215
Court

High Court

The Court declined to award indemnity or increased costs to the plaintiffs; applied ordinary costs principles given mixed success: FMA is entitled to scale costs for the dismissed tort claim; the Attorney-General must pay the plaintiffs 2B costs of NZD 13,881 plus disbursements NZD 9,115 for the successful NZBORA cause of action (reflecting a 50% allocation of plaintiffs' claimed costs with a NZD 5,000 reduction for mixed success); plaintiffs are jointly liable to pay the FMA 2B costs NZD 41,586 plus disbursements NZD 220; Sanderson and Bullock orders are inappropriate because the causes of a…
6 Oct 2015

PREMIER EVENTS GROUP LIMITED v BEATTIE & ORS [2015] NZHC 2428

Citation

[2015] NZHC 2428
Court

High Court

The Court ordered staged security because Premier Events is an impecunious limited company, there is a misallocation of litigation risk given substantial defendant costs incurred, the plaintiff has not proven that related parties who would benefit are impecunious, delay was not dispositive, and changed circumstances justified additional security for the sixth defendant and modest provision for expert costs.
8 Apr 2013

KAIN v WYNN WILLIAMS & CO SC 4/2013

Citation

SC 4/2013
Court

Supreme Court

The application for leave was dismissed because (1) the question of the lawfulness of pre-2006 conditional fee agreements was of historical interest only and did not meet the Supreme Court's leave criteria, and (2) the Court of Appeal correctly held, on available evidence, that the fee arrangement was not a consumer credit contract and did not misallocate the onus; accordingly no substantial miscarriage of justice was shown and leave was refused.
30 Nov 2012

KAIN V WYNN WILLIAMS & CO COA CA635/2011

Citation

COA CA635/2011
Court

Court of Appeal

The conditional fee agreement was not champertous under New Zealand law because NZ requires proof of maintenance/unjustified intermeddling and permits deferral of a reasonable fee; the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 reinforces that conditional normal fees are permissible; the CCCF Act did not apply because Wynn Williams' routine 14‑day invoice note was an indulgence and did not create a contractual right to defer payment (no consideration evidencing provision of credit).

New Zealand Case Law

MORRISON v FINANCIAL MARKETS AUTHORITY [2023] NZHC 3215

PREMIER EVENTS GROUP LIMITED v BEATTIE & ORS [2015] NZHC 2428

KAIN v WYNN WILLIAMS & CO SC 4/2013

KAIN V WYNN WILLIAMS & CO COA CA635/2011