Solicitors acting for a ship owner incurred costs which remained unpaid by the client, and the solicitors arrested that client’s ship as security. The litigation was continuing. The solicitors took themselves off the court record and obtained judgment for the outstanding costs. The client sought the return of the litigation papers.
Held: The arrest of the vessel did not operate to waive the solicitors’ lien over the papers. A usual order might be for the papers to be handed over against an undertaking, but this was not always to be ordered. The court was required to make the order which would least interfere with the course of justice. The solicitors had acted correctly, and the clients were simply trying to avoid payment. The order was refused, even with the offer of an undertaking from the new solicitors to hold the papers to the order of the first firm.
Judges:
Leggatt J
Citations:
[1984] 1 All ER 265
Cited by:
Cited – Ismail and Another v Richards Butler (A Firm) QBD 23-Feb-1996
A solicitor’s lien on papers can be set aside by the court to allow litigation to proceed, where there was a continuing retainer, and the lien was with regard to concluded matters. However, the release of the papers would reduce the value of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Legal Professions
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.179817
