195Interest on unpaid legal costs

195 Interest on unpaid legal costs

195 Interest on unpaid legal costs

(1) A law practice may charge interest on unpaid legal costs in accordance with the applicable terms of a costs agreement.

(2) To the extent that the applicable terms of a costs agreement do not deal with the charging of interest, a law practice may charge interest on unpaid legal costs if the costs are unpaid 30 days or more after the law practice has given a bill for the costs in accordance with this Part.

(3) A law practice must not charge interest under this section on unpaid legal costs unless the bill for those costs contains a statement that interest is payable and of the rate of interest.

(4) A law practice must not charge interest under this section or under a costs agreement at a rate that exceeds the rate specified in or determined under the Uniform Rules for the purposes of this section.

(5) A law practice must not charge interest under this section or under a costs agreement on a bill given more than 6 months after the completion of the matter.

(6) Subsection (5) does not apply where—

(a) the law practice has provided a lump sum bill within the 6-month period after completion, but the client or an associated third party payer requests an itemised bill outside of the 6-month period; or

(b) a bill has not been issued within the 6-month period (or an earlier bill has been issued but withdrawn) at the request of the client or associated third party payer.