Oswal v Burrup Holdings Limited [2011] FCA 609 - access to company records

The matter of Oswal v Burrup Holdings Limited [2011] FCA 609 (Oswal) was a hearing in the Federal Court of Australia before Barker J. The applicant was a director of two companies which had receivers appointed, and that director wanted access to company records. The receivers opposed this.

Oswal is interesting because of the depth of the Court's consideration of the right of a director to access company documents. I have included a case summary below.

Dimos v Hanos & Egan [2001] VSC 173 - recovery of counsel's fees

I was recently involved in a matter in which a barrister was suing for fees, and the solicitor was defending the proceeding on the basis that it was merely the agent of the client, and had no liability to the barrister.

The matter of Dimos v Hanos & Egan [2001] VSC 173 (Dimos) is a fairly comprehensive discussion of the law concerning who is liable when a solicitor briefs a barrister. It also has a good discussion of the history of recovering barrister's fees. Dimos is authority for the proposition that who is liable for counsel's fees is a question of fact to be determined on an objective basis and rests upon the principles of contract law. I have included below a summary of Dimos and extracts on the law concerning this issue.