{"id":29149,"date":"2024-05-06T13:20:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T13:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prelive-tdw.visibleone.app\/insight-and-news\/stop-resisting-solicitors-must-deliver-up-the-client-files-of-its-former-insolvent-client-to-the-liquidators\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T03:07:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T03:07:31","slug":"stop-resisting-solicitors-must-deliver-up-the-client-files-of-its-former-insolvent-client-to-the-liquidators","status":"publish","type":"insight-and-news","link":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/insight-and-news\/stop-resisting-solicitors-must-deliver-up-the-client-files-of-its-former-insolvent-client-to-the-liquidators\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop resisting! Solicitors must deliver up the client files of its former insolvent client to the liquidators."},"content":{"rendered":"\n    \n\n<div style=\"background-image:url('https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/wp-content\/themes\/tanner-de-witt\/images\/insightdetails.jpeg')\"\n    class=\"insight-news-detail-hero\" id=\"insight-news-detail-hero\">\n\n\t\t<div style=\"background-color:\" class=\"insight-news-detail-hero-overlay \"><\/div>\n            <div class=\"z-[0]\">\n                <div class=\"insight-news-breadcrumbs flex items-end practice-areas-featured-breadcrumbs \">\n                    <a class=\"page-link no-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/\">Home<\/a>                <\/div>\n\n\n                <div class=\"hero-title\">\n                    <h1>\n                        Stop resisting! Solicitors must deliver up the client files of its former insolvent client to the liquidators.                    <\/h1>\n                <\/div>\n                \n                    <div style=\"\" class=\"hero-date \">\n\n                        <span class=\"month\">May<\/span>\n                        <span class=\"day\">06<\/span>\n                        <span class=\"year\">2024<\/span>\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n    \n\n    \n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<script >\n    (function () {\n        document.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", () => {\n\n            const breadCrumbsContainer = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(\".practice-areas-featured-breadcrumbs\"));\n\n            breadCrumbsContainer.forEach(container => {\n                const breadCrumbLinks = Array.from(container.querySelectorAll('.page-link'));\n                const breadCrumbSeperators = Array.from(container.querySelectorAll('.separator'));\n\n                if (Array.from(breadCrumbLinks).length === 1) {\n                    const homeNode = breadCrumbLinks[0];\n\n                    if (!homeNode) {\n                        return\n                    }\n\n                    const postTypeNode = homeNode.cloneNode(true);\n                    postTypeNode.textContent = \"Insights and News\";\n                    container.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', `<span class=\"separator practice-areas-featured-breadcrumb-item-slash\">\/<\/span>`)\n                    container.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', postTypeNode)\n                    breadCrumbLinks.push(postTypeNode);\n\n                    if (\"Insights\") {\n                        const categoryNode = homeNode.cloneNode(true);\n\n                        categoryNode.textContent = \"Insights\";\n                        container.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', `<span class=\"separator practice-areas-featured-breadcrumb-item-slash\">\/<\/span>`)\n                        container.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', categoryNode)\n                        breadCrumbLinks.push(categoryNode);\n                    }\n\n\n                    const titleNode = homeNode.cloneNode(true);\n\n                    titleNode.textContent = \"Stop resisting! Solicitors must deliver up the client files of its former insolvent client to the liquidators.\";\n                    container.insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend', `<span class=\"separator practice-areas-featured-breadcrumb-item-slash\">\/<\/span>`)\n                    container.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', titleNode)\n                    breadCrumbLinks.push(titleNode);\n\n\n\n\n                }\n\n                breadCrumbLinks.forEach((link, index) => {\n\n                    link.classList.add('practice-areas-featured-breadcrumb-item-name');\n                    const origin = window.location.origin;\n                    const href = window.location.href;\n\n                    const originSplitter = window.location.href.includes(\"insight-and-news\") ? \"insight-and-news\" : window.location.href.includes('insights-and-news') ? \"insights-and-news\" : \"\"\n\n                    const paths = href.split(originSplitter);\n                    const links = paths[1].split(\"\/\").filter(Boolean)\n\n\n                    const resolvedOrigin = originSplitter ? 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E-Sports<\/u> [2024] HKCFI 1197 <\/em>c<em>an be accessed <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/legalref.judiciary.hk\/lrs\/common\/ju\/ju_frame.jsp?DIS=159778&amp;currpage=T\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>here<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last week Deputy High Court Judge Le Pichon, in <em>Re Yes! E-Sports<\/em>, admonished the conduct of a firm of solicitors which refused to deliver up its former client\u2019s files to court appointed liquidators because it claimed that an unspecified number of the documents were confidential to the former directors of the company (an argument that was rejected on legal and factual grounds by the Court).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Her Ladyship held that without proper legal justification, a firm of former solicitors cannot seek to impose conditions upon a former client retrieving its client files and practitioners should observe their obligations to former clients as set out in the Guide.\u00a0 The Court observed that <em>\u201crepetitive posturing and needless vitriol in correspondence serve no useful purpose other than to antagonise the opponent\u201d <\/em>and that the former solicitors\u2019 conduct throughout was not <em>\u201cconducive to furthering the objectives of the CJR.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>By advancing and maintaining an untenable position throughout, the former solicitors\u2019 conduct was held to have been unreasonable as it caused the liquidators to incur substantial costs by leaving them with no other option but to seek an order for the production of documents from the former solicitors pursuant to s. 286B of Cap. 32.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To compound matters, in response to the liquidators\u2019 application under s. 286B of Cap. 32, the former solicitors filed an application for security costs whereby HK$1.2 million was sought as security for its professional time costs to review the files and extract the documents being sought by the liquidators, keeping in mind the liquidators only wanted delivery up of the company\u2019s client files that had already been paid for by the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Her Ladyship held that the former solicitors\u2019 application for security for costs was without precedent or jurisdictional basis and that they had, by their unreasonable and continued resistance, forced the liquidators to seek production of documents under s. 286B of Cap. 32.\u00a0 On that basis, the Court awarded indemnity costs against the former solicitors for both summonses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Finally, a fundamental point considered by the Court was that former solicitors are not entitled to charge a former client for professional fees or time costs to deliver up the client files or comply with a summons issued under s. 286B of Cap. 32.\u00a0 Rather former solicitors can only charge the reasonable costs of compliance e.g. copying charges \/ retrieval of files from off-site storage.\u00a0 This is in line with and reinforces the principles set out by The Honourable Madam Justice Linda Chan in her judgment in <em><u>Re Bridge Global<\/u><\/em> [2024] HKCFI 1160 at [39], handed down just 4 days before the judgment in this case.<\/p>\n<p>Tanner De Witt acted for the successful liquidators in both <em>Re Yes! E-Sports <\/em>and <em>Re Bridge Global<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>James Wood, Barrister, Denis Chang Chambers appeared for the Liquidators in Re Yes! E-Sports <\/em>[2024] HKCFI 1197<em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><strong><em>Troy Greig and Natalie Lam<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you want to know more about the content of this article, please contact:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/our-people\/troy-greig\/\">Troy Greig<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Partner | <a href=\"\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#afdbddc0d6c8ddcac6c8efdbcec1c1caddcbcad8c6dbdb81ccc0c2\">Email<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Disclaimer: This publication is general in nature and is not intended to constitute legal advice. You should seek professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. This article was last updated<\/em> <em>on 6 May 2024<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"category-list\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/news-media\/latest-news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Latest News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/news-media\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News &amp; Media<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/legal-updates\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Legal Updates<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/insolvency\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Insolvency<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/restructuring\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Restructuring<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/troy-greig-1\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Troy Greig<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In what can only be described as a regretful sequence of events, a firm of solicitors was ordered to pay indemnity costs for unreasonably refusing to deliver up its former client\u2019s files to the liquidators where no lien was claimed.\u00a0 Legal practitioners should bear in mind that upon the making of a winding up order, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"insight-category":[1121],"insight-month":[1154],"insight-practice-area":[1122],"insight-year":[1159],"class_list":["post-29149","insight-and-news","type-insight-and-news","status-publish","hentry","insight-category-legal-updates-and-insights","insight-month-may","insight-practice-area-restructuring-and-insolvency","insight-year-1159"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-and-news\/29149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-and-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/insight-and-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-and-news\/29149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30369,"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-and-news\/29149\/revisions\/30369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29149"},{"taxonomy":"insight-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-category?post=29149"},{"taxonomy":"insight-month","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-month?post=29149"},{"taxonomy":"insight-practice-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-practice-area?post=29149"},{"taxonomy":"insight-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tannerdewitt.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insight-year?post=29149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}