A significant media victory was scored by Carte Blanche when it gained access to the taxation of an attorney-client bill of costs in the Palace of Justice in Pretoria. Last week Ronald Bobroff & Partners (RBP) sought to claim R2.1m in fees from its client, road accident victim Etienne Rubbers. RBP was placed under curatorship when two of its three directors, Ronald and Darren Bobroff, fled the country for Australia in mid-March as fugitives from justice. Cora van der Merwe, a cost consultant retained by Rubbers, alleged that R1.9m stood to be taxed off.

Taxing Master Anusha Chetty expressed her commitment to open justice by allowing multi-award winning Carte Blanche journalist Tony Beamish to attend. Chetty’s decision accords with a seminal judgment by Pretoria Judge President Dunstan Mlambo. In 2014 he granted Carte Blanche the right to live broadcast the Oscar Pistorius trial.

RBP’s cost consultant Hennie ‘Hayder’ Rosslee produced a photocopy of a mandate that had not formed part of the Rubbers file. Van der Merwe objected to this and then dropped a bombshell by producing an RBP fee mandate of its former client Christine Maree. This, Van der Merwe alleged, was a forgery created by Darren Bobroff in order to overreach Maree and to deceive Judge Brian Spilg who had heard the Maree matter, and was sufficient reason for Chetty not to rely on the photocopy that Rosslee had sprung on her.

Rosslee was given 10 days to produce an original mandate failing which Chetty will have to decide on which tariff the bill of costs will be taxed.

Beamish said: ‘The circumstances of this matter impart a clarion call for judges to exercise greater circumspection when granting orders in personal injury matters. The date of the fee agreement and its terms ought to be spelled out in the court& rsquo;s order for the protection of clients and the guidance of Taxin g Masters.’

Maree fee mandate

Maree v Ronald Bobroff & Partners