Hon Justice Stephen Mubiru : Provision of Legal services and remuneration of Advocates.

Hon Justice Stephen Mubiru : Provision of Legal services and remuneration of Advocates.

1. An Advocate ought to advise the client honestly and candidly about the nature, extent and scope of the services that he or she can provide, and, where appropriate, whether the services can be provided within the financial means of the client.

2. When an Advocate first receives instructions, he or she must provide the client with a cost estimate that is as accurate as the circumstances permit, bearing in mind that billing inaccuracies and inaccurate invoicing lead to numerous problems affecting the Advocate-client relationship.

3. Advocates are entitled to fees which adequately compensate them for their services and therefore an advocate has a right to contract for any fee he or she chooses so long as it is not below the specified fee under The Advocates (Remuneration and Taxation of Costs) Rules, extortionate or excessive.

4. As a result of lawyers’ special role in the legal system, contracts between a lawyer and client receive different treatment than other contracts. These fee agreements are unenforceable if not registered with Law Council.

5. Agreements may be enforced if the Court is of the opinion that the they are in all respects fair and reasonable, or be set aside, cancelled, or declared void if the Court is of the opinion that the agreement is in any respect unfair or unreasonable, in which case it may order the costs covered by the agreement to be taxed as if the agreement had never been made.

6.The contract between an Advocate and his client is not exactly similar to other contracts between private persons. This Contract is inevitably concerned with the administration of justice as it is made between an officer of the Court and a litigant before the Court.

7. The willingness of professional advocates to represent litigants should not be undermined either by creating conflicts of interest or by exposing the advocates to pressures which will tend to deter them from representing certain clients or from doing so effectively.

8. The goal or objective of taxation is firstly to quantify the costs and secondly, to ensure that the parties liable for the costs do not pay too much, and that the successful party is not prejudiced.

9. Where there is no dispute as to retainer or where costs have been awarded to one or other party by Court, but there is no agreement between parties about legal costs, the role of the Taxing Officer is limited to the examination of the nature of the work done by the Advocate, and to assess the costs involved.

10. When sitting as a Judicial Officer to tax a bill of costs between an advocate and his or her client and an issue arises as to whether or not an advocate-client relationship existed, or whether or not general instructions were given in respect of the work billed, or the work done exceeded the scope of instructions given, that question must be determined by reference to the Judge.