The Court held that the only binding fee arrangements between a local council and its panel solicitors were the formal tender agreements required under the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW), and that purported costs agreements sent by the solicitor — providing for higher rates, deferred fees, and a 25% uplift fee — were never accepted by Council and were in any event unenforceable for non-compliance with LPUL ss 181-182, as the costs agreements were not genuinely conditional (the firm assumed no risk of non-payment) and failed to identify the basis of calculation or provide an estimate of the uplift fee. The solicitor's disbursement of $2.4 million in AJC settlement trust funds to himself and related entities, contrary to Council's express direction, constituted a breach of fiduciary duty, and both the solicitor personally and a related entity were liable as knowing recipients to pay equitable compensation to reconstitute the trust. Council was entitled to restitution of approximately $767,693 for overpayment at rates above tender rates paid under mistake, and Passer Par was liable under ACL s 18 for misleading representations that it could prepare a bill of costs more cheaply than external costs consultants, though the Court declined to find Mr Redenbach personally liable as a 'person involved' where Council failed to identify which limb of the statutory definition applied.
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