Judge slashes lawyer’s ‘plainly excessive’ bills from over $108,000 to $34,000

The couple had dropped their lawyers and settled the case on their own for $330,000. After the settlement, Arbiters sued the couple to press for payment of bills amounting to about $370,000. The bill was reduced to $87,000 by the Appellate Division of the High Court in December 2024.

The three-judge court said the costs claimed by Mr Rai were so “plainly excessive as to amount to overcharging”.

The Appellate Division also referred Mr Rai’s conduct to the Law Society of Singapore for a disciplinary inquiry.

In the current case, Mr Rai acted for a beauty salon, De Beaute, in a civil suit against a former employee for

and pocketing customers’ monies.

His firm took over the case in February 2023 and provided a fee estimate of $70,000 up to the end of trial.

De Beaute paid the first seven invoices totalling $33,285, each charging around $4,000 and $5,000 in professional fees.

In September 2023, before trial dates were fixed, Arbiters issued an eighth invoice charging $40,000 in fees.

De Beaute discharged Arbiters as its lawyers and later engaged Mr Gavin Neo of WongPartnership to handle the lawsuit and the dispute over the bills.

In October 2024, a district judge agreed with De Beaute’s request for the bills to be assessed by the court.

Arbiters appealed to the High Court against this decision.

Mr Rai argued that he had carried out “an enormous amount of work” due to the complexity of the matter.

The appeal was dismissed in March 2025 by Justice Dedar Singh Gill, who found the amounts in the invoices to be “plainly excessive”. He said the matter was not as complex as Mr Rai made it out to be.

The bills were then assessed by a State Courts deputy registrar, who reduced the fees from $108,225 to $46,000 in August 2025.

Arbiters then applied for a review of this decision.

Judge Chiah, who heard the arguments, further reduced the bills to $34,000.

The sum comprised $30,000 for work done in the preparation and review of affidavits, and $4,000 for attending a pre-trial hearing.

In his written judgment, Judge Chiah said he took into account the costs guidelines for tort and commercial cases, the fee estimate initially provided by Arbiters, and the legal costs that were ultimately awarded to De Beaute in October that year after the firm won the suit.