Preston v Nikolaidis [2023] NSWSC 316

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Preston v Nikolaidis [2023] NSWSC 316 Hearing dates: 12 July, 12 October, and 18 November 2022 followed by submissions in chambers in December 2022. Date of orders: 31 March 2023 Decision date: 31 March 2023 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Slattery J Decision: Defendants' lien is maintainable over the contested files. Plaintiff required to confirm whether he will comply with a condition of obtaining the files that the Court will impose that he must pay money into Court at least in the amount of the fees originally claimed by the solicitors. Catchwords: LIENS – enforcement of liens – statutes of limitation – Limitation Act 1969, s 68 – plaintiff's legal files held by the defendant solicitors, a firm – plaintiff claims return of files from the firm – in a previous judgment the Court determined that the firm's action for recovery of legal fees against the plaintiff is statute barred – whether the firm may maintain a lien over the files notwithstanding the extinguishment of the firm's action against the plaintiff. Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 Uniform Civil Procedure Rule Judicial Officers Act 1986 Limitation Act 1969, ss 14, 63, 68 Cases Cited: Coshott v Parker [2019] FCAFC 14 Preston v Nikolaidis [2017] NSWSC 1527 Preston v Nikolaidis [2021] NSWSC 36 Preston v Nikolaidis: [2022] NSWSC 521 Texts Cited: The First Report on the Limitation of Actions [1967] LRC 3 – New South Wales Law Reform Commission Category: Consequential orders Parties: In the 1993/00023395 proceedings: