Lennon Lawyers succeed in obtaining a costs order on an indemnity basis against the DHHS
In many jurisdictions, for reasons that rile both lawyers and clients, the rules and/or convention dictate that each party must bear their own costs. Obviously, for a litigant who believes they should not have to go to a court or tribunal, or alternatively that they are being dealt with poorly, this can be exasperating. Fortunately, our firm has had significant success in obtaining costs orders for and on behalf of clients.
Probably the high watermark of such orders was a case in the Children’s Court against the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) approximately one year ago. Obviously, matters in that jurisdiction (as with the Family Court of Australia) cannot be the subject of any reporting, however, our Pat Lennon and Melanie Vairawanathan succeeded in obtaining a costs order on an indemnity basis (the first ever as we understand it) against the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for the way in which they prosecuted the matter and handled the litigation before the court.
We pride ourselves on adopting a commercial approach and attempting to mitigate any costs impost on clients and this is a tenet of our philosophical and cultural view about the practice of law.