Summary

This is an appeal against the decision of Master Rowley made on 17 December 2020 and a consequential decision on 19 March 2021. The matter arises from proceedings under the Solicitors Act 1974 and issues which arose at the start of proceedings in respect of a bill of costs dated 3 December 2019 regarding costs incurred from 6 September 2017.

The Claimants (in this appeal the Respondents) retained the Defendant (Appellant) firm of solicitors Volterra Fietta (“Volterra” or “the Firm”) for the purposes of an arbitration under a bilateral investment treaty against the Czech Republic. The detail of that arbitration is not relevant to the issues before the court, however in broad terms, it related to a previous arbitration award in favour of the First Claimant (“Diag”) which remained unsatisfied as against the Czech Republic. The amount claimed in the arbitration was about $2.4 billion, made up of the sum in question, interest and additional losses.

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