We reported in April the allegation that a Keddies lawyer, since convicted of assaulting a female, unnecessarily incurred costs so that he could enjoy a client-paid junket to Hong Kong.

Last week, more troubling news was reported about Keddies, this time in relation to its alleged over-charging of former client Mohammed Tariq:

For more than a year Mohammed Tariq has been staging a one-man protest about the legal fees the law firm Keddies charged him after a motor vehicle accident left him with head injuries in 2007… the firm charged him $60 for a letter welcoming him to the firm and $49 for reading a thank you email. Now it appears that Tariq has finally had a victory. A cost assessor appointed by the Supreme Court has … taken a dim view of Keddies’s conduct, which included charging the Tariq family $600 for a two-kilometre taxi ride.

The assessor found that:

”Keddies in each case has practised systematic duplication and overcharging, which, in my opinion, is deliberate and has in many cases led to the charging of costs that are grossly excessive”.

The assessor recommended Keddies refund Tariq $37,000.

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We received the following anonymous, no-nonsense email yesterday:

Keddies Lawyers has laid off 40 staff.

At a time when there is a broad perception that personal injury/insurance firms are quarantined from the GFC strife affecting other law firms, this rumour, if true, would make more certain the troubling idea that no job is safe. Either that, or Keddies partners are making opportunistic use of the financial climate to make redundancies.

We invite a clarifaction and comments from Keddies staff.

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Three partners in Australian personal injury firm Keddies will soon face disciplinary proceedings for either

unprofessional conduct or professional misconduct.

Ironically, one of the partners accused, Scott Roulstone, used to be a member of the NSW Law Society’s Professional Conduct Committee. As noted by the Sydney Morning Herald:

The allegations … relate to accusations of gross overcharging in the case of a woman who was rendered a paraplegic in a bus crash… her legal case was relatively straightforward as there were no issues relating to liability. Her case was settled with the insurers without going to court. However, the woman [alleges] she did not receive a bill from Keddies and it was not until she complained that she discovered Keddies had charged her $800,000 in legal fees. This represented a quarter of her total payout of $3.5 million…Legal experts asked to review the case … estimated the reasonable legal charges should have been between $80,000 to $120,000.

Keddies lawyers is also the former employer of David Marocchi, the lawyer recently convicted of assaulting a female.

Do you think it is ironic that an ex-member of a Professional Conduct Committee is being investigated for allegedly overcharging a quadraplaegic?  Send the Firm Spy your news and views!

The ex-managing partner of Keddies Lawyers’ Liverpool office, David Marocchi, has been convicted of assaulting a woman.  The Newtown Local Court found Marocchi guilty of two counts of assaulting police, including kicking a female officer in the chest.  Marocchi was fined $4500 and ordered to pay $73 in court costs.

As we noted in March:

According to news reports today, David Marocchi … was pulled over by police who suspected that the ‘excessively loud music’ emanating from his black Holden Commodore might infringe recently legislated anti-hoon laws.  Reputedly, police officers then asked Marocchi to undergo a breath-test.  Marocchi repeatedly yelled:

‘I don’t have to do anything … I’m a solicitor… prove to me I’m over [the limit]!’

Marocchi apparently … used force of his own to wrestle the arresting female officer, thrashing his arms at her and forcing her to the ground where she sustained serious, but non-life-threatening injuries… Marocchi delivered an intense, violent kick to the female officer’s left breast which contained so much force that she fell backwards to the ground.

His conviction comes amid continued investigations as to Marocchi’s billing practices whilst a Keddies Lawyer.  Is this the legal profession’s finest ambassador? Send the Firm Spy your news and views!

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David Marocchi, about whom we have previously reported, has emerged as a national pariah as new allegations threaten to blacken the integrity of the wider legal profession, both domestically and abroad.

The same man who once yelled to arresting police officers ‘Im a lawyer… I dont have to do anything’, before allegedly assaulting the female officer with a violent kick to her left breast, is now embroiled in new scandal. In the latest allegation, Marocchi is alleged to have needlessly incurred costs for a disfigured, injured client so that he could enjoy a junket to Hong Kong.  A senior counsel has argued that:

The irresistible inference is that they [Keddies Lawyers] have gone over [to Hong Kong] but in doing so have cost this particular client $20,000… they have run up unnecessary costs by refusing to accept the offer in Sydney but settling [after two days of hearing] for $60,000 in her hand.

The client, Ms Yuan has since lodged a complaint with the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner, having learned that Keddies charged in excess of $260,000 in legal fees and disbursements. The client’s compensation amounted to just over one-fifth of the $320,000 paid by the an insurer in the case which arose from permanent injuries sustained in a fall on a tour bus travelling on the Pacific Highway.

First it was a bill for reading a ’thank-you’ card, then it was a procession of Legal Services Board investigations, but now it appears that Sydney law firm Keddies may have reached a new nadir: woman-bashing.

According to news reports today, David Marocchi, the recently departed head of Keddies Lawyers in Liverpool, was pulled over by police who suspected that the ‘excessively loud music’ emanating from his black Holden Commodore might infringe recently legislated anti-hoon laws.  Reputedly, police officers then asked Marocchi to undergo a breath-test.  This request evidently fell upon deaf ears, with Marocchi, according to police testimony, repeatedly yelling:

‘I don’t have to do anything … I’m a solicitor… prove to me I’m over [the limit]!’

Marocchi was asked to exit his car and, when he refused, police used force to remove him from the car. According to police testimony, Marocchi’s hostility intensified and he:

‘clenched his fists and yelled ‘f$$$king let me go, bitch.’

While the Firm Spy is unaware of whether the charges have been proven, Marocchi apparently then used force of his own to wrestle the arresting female officer, thrashing his arms at her and forcing her to the ground where she sustained serious, but non-life-threatening injuries. It was at this point that the accompanying male police officer was able to successfully handcuff Marocchi. As both officers tried to put Marocchi into the police car, Marocchi delivered an intense, violent kick to the female officer’s left breast which contained so much force that she fell backwards to the ground.  Let this sordid tale be a lesson to everyone.