Former clients of Mick Bainbridge’s law firm claim they were overcharged for legal advice. The firm is suing them for not paying their fees.
The Wollongong law firm owned by RSL NSW president Mick Bainbridge and fellow director Paul James is suing at least 13 veterans in a flurry of claims lodged in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
“Your firm has not acted in my best interests as a client, did not deliver clear and timely advice or deliver legal services as promptly, diligently and competently as possible,” he wrote. Her complaint also alleged that the RSL heavyweights “rorted” the financial assistance scheme for the Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide by charging solicitors’ rates for work they had outsourced to a private investigator, and “reverse engineered” their billing to ensure clients were charged the maximum amount that they could claim back under the scheme.
A third veteran said he received several angry phone calls from Bainbridge and James after he terminated their services in June, including one in which they told him they would send him a large invoice if he did not continue to be represented by them. The firm did not press the invoice after he complained to the regulator. James told the veteran that the solicitor who originally worked on his case had been terminated for misconduct.
“They agreed not to charge them until their claims came through. Instead, they did nothing and then sued those vulnerable veterans.Wollongong Local Court has already delivered several default judgments in favour of OLA.
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