A. v. B. - Q.B.D. (Com.Ct.) (Leggatt J.) - 28 June 1983

Unpaid solicitors’ bill - Whether lien may be exercised on documents where solicitor has discharged himself

In this application Leggatt J. had to consider the circumstances in which solicitors are entitled to exercise a lien on documents in respect of costs unpaid by their client. In Gamlen Chemical Co. v. Rochem Ltd. [1980] 1 W.L.R. 614, the Court of Appeal held that the general position was that the rights of the solicitor depended on whether he was discharged by the client or whether he discharged himself. If he was discharged by the client other than for misconduct, he was entitled to keep his lien and the Court had no power to interfere with the exercise of it. If, on the other hand, the solicitor discharged himself, he only enjoyed a “qualified lien” and the Court would, as a matter of general practice, order the solicitor (without prejudice to his lien) to yield up papers required for use in the litigation to the new solicitor against an undertaking by the new solicitor, so long as he retained the papers, to allow the old solicitor to have access to them and to return them to him as soon as the litigation had been concluded.