Winning Result. Lawyer Karen Zvulony has Lawyer's Fees Reduced by 95% at Assessment

Karen Zvulony achieved success in the Ontario Court of Appeal, successfully upholding two favorable decisions for her client. The client had been presented with an exorbitant legal bill from their previous lawyer. The client wanted to dispute their former lawyer’s legal fees.  Karen Zvulony had her client’s former lawyer’s legal fees judicially assessed on behalf of her client under the Solicitors Act. The lawyer’s six accounts initially totaled $137,054.58.  The assessment resulted in the accounts being assessed at $6500.00, a substantial reduction of $124,000 (equivalent to 95% of the original bill) of the lawyer’s fees. 

The previous lawyer appealed the Assessment Officer’s decision to the Superior Court of Justice, where Justice Aston ruled in favor of Karen Zvulony’s client and awarded her costs. 

In upholding the Assessment Officer’s decision and significant reduction in the lawyer’s fees, Justice Aston wrote: 

“It is also clear that the Assessment Officer turned his attention to the nine factors listed by the Court of Appeal in Cohen v. Kealey and Blaney (1985) as a kind of checklist.  He connected that checklist to the particular circumstances and evidence before him during the course of the 4 days of the assessment.  It is not incumbent upon the Assessment Officer to comment on the evidence at length, particularly in a case such as this where it is not so much the time spent by the solicitor that determines the appropriate result.  Here, the focus of the assessment emphasized the time that ought to have been spent, the time that was productively spent, the results and benefit to the client, and other factors which far over-shadowed the solicitor’s investment of time as the appropriate way to fairly assess the accounts for services.  On the evidence before the Assessment Officer, he had good reason to question the skill and competence demonstrated by the solicitor in this particular file and the lack of any meaningful “success” or benefit for the client.  Though the court ultimately accepted Mr. Sawhney’s application to have the case brought under case management, it was essentially still at the pleadings stage when the matter was taken over by a new counsel”.

The previous lawyer further appealed Justice Aston’s decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal, where Karen Zvulony successfully argued to uphold Justice Aston’s decision. The Court of Appeal  awarded Karen Zvulony’s client an additional $5,000 in costs.

DISCLAIMER: Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. The amount recovered and other litigation outcomes will vary according to the facts in individual cases.