The appellant borrower agreed under a commercial loan arrangement to pay the lender's actual legal fees and authorized the lender to debit its account for those fees.
After the lender paid its solicitors from the appellant's account over the appellant's objection and without providing meaningful billing detail, the appellant sought an assessment under the Solicitors Act.
The Court of Appeal held that s. 11 applied because the bills had been paid, but that the contractual wording did not preclude assessment and did not amount to a waiver.
Special circumstances existed because the payment was made over objection, the third party payer had virtually no information about the work done, and only an assessment could determine whether the fees actually fell within the contractual obligation.
The appeal was allowed, an assessment was directed, privilege issues were left to the assessment officer, and costs were awarded to the appellant.
