Lawyer also charged clients a “criminal” rate of interest of three per cent a month for outstanding balances, according to B.C. Supreme Court judgment
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A lawyer who charged his clients $425,000 to settle their grandmother’s estate has been ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to reduce the bill to $60,000.
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Andrew Liggett, the sole lawyer of the Sea to Sky Law Corp., has also been ordered to pay the legal costs of his clients for a hearing under the Legal Professions Act that took five days.
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Liggett eventually ended up billing Michael Arnaldi and his sister for 629 hours for his services, at $395 an hour, and an additional 78 hours for work done by his legal staff, at $125 an hour, in what was an “acrimonious” case between them and their mother and uncle, who contested the will.
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The parties eventually settled after mediation and the matter didn’t go to trial.
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Arnaldi was left with the $390,000 bill after paying a $35,000 retainer, which in total amounted to more than one-third of the $1.4 million estate, according to the judgment by court registrar Meg Gaily.
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He applied to the court to have the fees reduced to $70,000.
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Liggett told the hearing his fees were reasonable for a contested estate matter.
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But Gaily found them “excessive” and “indefensible” and needing to be “substantially reduced,” finding $60,000 to be a “fair fee” in line with the service provided.
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Arnaldi hired Liggett after his grandmother died in August 2023, first to help him have her body released from the morgue after his mother refused to let that happen before an autopsy could be performed.
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Liggett ending up representing Arnaldi and his sister after their mother and uncle disputed a 2022 will that left more of the estate to the grandchildren, preferring an earlier will where the deceased woman’s two children received a greater share.
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About 13 months after the grandmother died, the four agreed to split the estate four ways.
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The evidence showed the issues were “not particularly complex, difficult or novel,” according to the judgment.
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Gaily said evidence showed that during much of Arnaldi’s initial retainer of $35,000, “Mr. Liggett was ‘running up the clock’ with work that was unproductive and unnecessary.”
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“Fees exceeded $100,000 for approximately five months of work with two appearances in chambers, neither of which were for more than half a day,” she said.
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The hours billed did not appear to match the task completed, such as when Liggett billed 6.5 hours for one court appearance that ended in adjournment, she said.
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Liggett advertised himself as a lawyer with 30 years experience, but many of the billing entries showed time spent on staff researching and reviewing court rules and forms, said Gaily.
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“Legal training should not be passed on to clients,” as it’s part of a firm’s overhead, she said.
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Liggett submitted during the hearing that Arnaldi was “suffering from ‘settlement remorse’” and had not complained about the fees when Liggett had been sending him hundreds of emails on an almost daily basis to advise about the process.
