Court orders politician to pay law firm Sh4.5m

By Evelyn Kwamboka

Veteran politician Arthur Magugu and his wife Margaret Wairimu have been ordered to pay a law firm Sh4.5 million.

Three Appellate judges on Wednesday ruled that if dissatisfied with a lawyer, a client has to pay him before moving to another lawyer to handle his case.

The politician had hired the firm of Wachira and Company Advocates to represent him in a case that was filed in court in 1998.

He later withdrew the instructions and asked another law firm to handle the matter, forcing Wachira and Company to file its bill of costs on April 4, last year.

On July 30, last year, the High Court’s deputy registrar taxed the cost and arrived at a fee of Sh4.5 million.

Aggrieved by the taxation, Magugu filed an application before the High Court, seeking to have the taxation set aside and varied by decreasing the sum payable to the advocate.

The High Court ruled on February 7, 2002 that the taxation was premature because it is the constitutional right of every litigant to change advocates.

The court said one has to wait for the whole case to end before filing the costs.

Wachira’s firm moved to Court of Appeal to challenge that decision, saying the High Court had no powers to declare the taxation premature.

Upholding the appeal, Court of Appeal judges Erastus Githinji, Hannah Okwengu and David Maraga ruled that an advocate whose instructions have been terminated is entitled to immediate payment of fees for the services rendered.