Judge: Work 32 hours, how did lawyer (now High Court judge) spend balance 180 hours?

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

FROM $235,000 CUT TO $22,000

The amount claimed to pay law firm Shook Lin & Bok for the services of legal assessor V. Coomaraswamy during the second disciplinary hearing CUT TO $22,000 from

The judgment: A legal assessor attends SMC disciplinary hearings only to advise on questions of law, and to alert the committee of any irregularity in the proceedings. He may also help the committee draft its decision. For the work of the legal assessor in the first hearing, which totalled 65 hours, law firm Wee Swee Teow charged $49,200 for Senior Counsel Giam Chin Toon's time. This was reduced to $45,000.

In the second hearing, Shook Lin & Bok charged $235,000 for then Senior Counsel V. Coomaraswamy's 224 hours of work done between August 2010 and July 2012. Ms Lee noted the start date for the bill was before the second disciplinary committee had even been formed.[/B] [/COLOR]

Questioning the number of hours of work by Mr Coomaraswamy, she said: "Even rounding up all the hours taken for the nine pre-inquiry conferences and the five inquiry hearings, they should add up to no more than 32 hours. This only leaves one to wonder how the second legal assessor spent the balance of approximately 180 hours."

Ms Lee made it clear she believed the lawyer, who is now a Supreme Court judge, had actually spent 224 hours on the case, possibly on internal meetings. But without details, she said, she was unable to decide if any of them could be considered part of required work.

She said it was not fair for Dr Lim to be charged $1,050 per hour for Mr Coomaraswamy's work, when the previous legal assessor had charged $570 per hour - as it was not her fault a second committee had to be set up to hear her case.


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.