The Chorley exception – barristers included

This is a postscript to an earlier post about the Chorley exception, a legal rule that although self-represented litigants are not entitled to professional costs in acting for themselves in court proceedings, there is an exception where a solicitor is self-represented. It is named after the decision in London Scottish Benefit Society v Chorley (1884) 13 QBD 87.

After giving special leave to appeal from the decision of the NSW Court of Appeal in Coshott v Spencer [2017] NSWCA 118, where the rule was applied, the High Court decided, mid-hearing, to revoke the special leave: Coshott v Spencer [2018] HCATrans 81.  The matter was found not to be appropriate for a special leave determination as to whether the exception still applied.  The rule therefore still stands.

And the rule has now been extended further, to barristers representing themselves in court: see Pentelow v Bell Lawyers Pty Ltd [2018] NSWCA 150.

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