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Law of Costs
Citation
Dal Pont, G, Law of Costs, LexisNexis Butterworths, Chatswood, NSW, pp. 1022. ISBN 0409319171 (2003) [Authored Research Book]
Copyright Statement
© 2003 Reed International Books Australia Pty Limited
Official URL: http://www.lexisnexis.com.au
Abstract
Essentially what underlie the law of costs are attempts to regulate and control
the price of justice. In a sense the need for such regulation and control, inter
alia, arises out of what the Western Australia Law Reform Commission has
termed the ‘uncomfortable tension between legal costs and justice’.
The
Commission remarked that ‘[a]ll people in a free and democratic society regard
justice not as a privilege, but as a right’, and so ‘there is something inherently
inconsistent in the notion that justice is a right which must be paid for’.
2
It also
dictates that, with particular reference to curial control on who pays costs and
how much, the court need be invested with a discretion as to costs. Hence the
well-known statement that ‘there is only one immutable rule in relation to
costs, and that is that there are no immutable rules’.
Moreover, the court’s
costs jurisdiction and discretion reflects its ability to control standards in the
profession, it being judicially observed that ‘[o]rders for costs are one of the
ways, possibly one of the most effective ways, of a court controlling the
standards of the profession and the efficiency of litigation’.
Item Details
Item Type: | Authored Research Book |
---|---|
Research Division: | Law and Legal Studies |
Research Group: | Public law |
Research Field: | Public law not elsewhere classified |
Objective Division: | Law, Politics and Community Services |
Objective Group: | Justice and the law |
Objective Field: | Justice and the law not elsewhere classified |
UTAS Author: | Dal Pont, G (Professor Gino Dal Pont) |
ID Code: | 26960 |
Year Published: | 2003 |
Deposited By: | Law |
Deposited On: | 2003-08-01 |
Last Modified: | 2010-05-20 |
Downloads: | 4 View Download Statistics |
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