The solicitor sought to exercise a lien for his costs over money paid direct to his client.
Held: The solicitor’s right exists over both the amount of a judgment in favour of the client, and the amount of an order for costs in favour of the client.
The solicitor need not be still acting for the client at the time that the money was recovered. The right of the solicitor is one which the solicitor can enforce against the client, entitling the solicitor to an injunction to prevent the payment of the fund to the client without notice to the solicitor until such time as the quantum of the solicitor’s entitlement to be paid from the fund is ascertained: ‘It might, however, be argued that there is no fund in sight before taxation has determined the amount of it. . . Is it to be suggested, merely because the client has not ascertained the amount of the fund by agreement or taxation, that there is no fund? If this were the law, the client would indeed be able to deprive the solicitor of his lien, which, as was emphasised in Ex parte Bryant, it is the policy of the law to protect’.
The lien is seen as a valuable right and one which is ‘the policy of the law to protect’, but Scarman J said: ‘The duty of a Court is to intervene only if it be necessary for the solicitor’s protection, and then only to the extent necessary to safeguard his lien.’
Scarman J
[1968] P 727
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – In the Estate of Fuld, decd (No 3) ChD 1967
The deceased had spent relatively equal periods in two or more countries. The parties disputed his domicile.
Held: A blind adherence to foreign law can not be always expected of an English Court. The legal relationship between a person and the . .
Cited by:
Cited – Gavin Edmondson Solicitors Ltd v Haven Insurance Company Ltd CA 2-Dec-2015
Appeal by Edmondson against an Order dismissing Edmondson’s claim against Haven in respect of Haven’s conduct in settling on an inclusive basis personal injury claims directly with six clients of Edmondson with whom Edmondson had concluded . .
Cited – Gavin Edmondson Solicitors Ltd v Haven Insurance Company Ltd SC 18-Apr-2018
The court was asked as to use of the solicitor’s equitable lien, whereby equity provided security for the recovery by solicitors of their agreed charges for the successful conduct of litigation, out of the fruits of that litigation. It is a . .
These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 18 July 2021; Ref: scu.556269