All Australian jurisdictions provide mechanisms for assessing legal costs. Australian costs assessment mechanisms have been inherited from England, and the traditional model of costs assessment is an adversarial process operated by the courts. Western Australia has a costs assessment scheme that follows that traditional model. In contrast New South Wales abandoned the traditional model in 1994, adopting an administrative costs assessment scheme operating separately from the courts with practicing lawyers acting as costs assessors and paid as sub contractors to determine costs disputes. Steve Shaw discusses the costs assessment schemes of both jurisdictions.

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