Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts(1) Where a legal practitioner for a party to proceedings, whether personally or through a servant or an agent, has caused costs to be incurred improperly or without reasonable cause or to be wasted by undue delay or negligence or by any other misconduct or default, the Court may make an order that:
(a) all or any of the costs between the legal practitioner and the client be disallowed or that the legal practitioner repay to the client the whole or part of any money paid on account of costs;
(b) the legal practitioner pay to the client all or any of the costs which the client has been ordered to pay to any party; or
(c) the legal practitioner pay all or any of the costs payable by a party other than the client.
(2) Without limiting the generality of subsection (1), a legal practitioner is in default for the purposes of that subsection if proceedings cannot conveniently be heard or proceed, or fail or are adjourned without any useful progress being made, because the legal practitioner failed to:
(a) attend in person or by a proper representative;
(b) file a document which ought to have been filed;
(c) lodge or deliver a document for the use of the Court which ought to have been lodged or delivered;
(d) be prepared with proper evidence or an account; or
(e) otherwise proceed.
(3) The Court shall not make an order under subsection (1) without giving the legal practitioner a reasonable opportunity to be heard.
(4) The Court may order that notice of proceedings or an order against a legal practitioner under this section be given to the client in such manner as it directs.
(5) This section applies even if the claim the subject of the proceedings is wholly or partly beyond the jurisdiction of the Court.
(6) This section also applies to a law practice, as defined in section 4 of the Legal Practitioners Act 2006 , that employs the legal practitioner.