CJR Final Report, Section 25: Costs transparency

Proposal 52: costs-related disclosures to the client

This proposal, aimed at making it the duty of solicitors and barristers to disclose to

their client the basis on which he will be charged and to provide him with a regularly

updated statement of costs and disbursements incurred as well as estimates of future

costs, with an explanation for any changes to the estimates, received support from the

great majority of respondents to the consultation.

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The attitude of the Law Society to Proposal 52 is, however, not entirely clear.

Chapter 4 of the Law Society's Guide to Professional Conduct presently contains non-

mandatory guidelines for providing relevant information to the client. In the body of

its report, the Law Society's Working Party supports a mandatory duty to provide such

information by way of a professional obligation, stating : -

"The LSWP has recommended that the Law Society promulgate a mandatory retainer letter

for use in litigation covering fees, estimates and updates, as well as other standard advice.

However, the obligation should not be too onerous. The information should be based on

information which the solicitor can provide ‘as far as practicable'. Barristers must disclose

the basis of their fees to solicitors."

However, in Appendix 2, in relation to Proposal 52, the report states that the Law

Society "does not go so far as to impose mandatory requirement" [sic] and that the

Law Society is "to provide guidance on retainer letter ......"

Notes

Including the Bar Association, the APAA, the HKMLA, the Consumer Council, the DOJ (with the

qualification that the government should be exempted), the BCC, the Hon Ms Audrey Eu SC, the

Hon Mr Andrew Cheng, the Hon Mr Ip Kwok Him (delivering the speech of the Hon Mr Jasper

Tsang) all speaking in Legco and three firms of solicitors. The BSCPI was against this proposal,

arguing that it should be left to solicitors to estimate costs for the client.

Law Society report, p 59.