Monday, August 11, 2014

Somebody Definitely Overcharged

Thanks to a partisan mainstream media, we were more than enlightened with the inglorious details of how surgeon Susan Lim overcharged her royal patient from Brunei. The Business Times online report (2 July 2014) was first to break the story of how lawyers for the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) - Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho of WongPartnership (WongP) - overcharged for their work against Dr Lim. Unfortunately we missed it it because of travel to wifi challenged locations; this is note for self.

Lim's husband Deepak Sharma - ex-Citi Private Bank global chairman - had disputed WongP's bills. In particular, in one of the bills, WongP was charging what amounted to $77,102 for each day they were in court. In another, it was $46,729 for each day in court. And for the third bill, the lawyers' charges worked out to be $100,000 per hour of hearing.

The total bill from the WongP lawyers - which amounted to $1.007 million - was brought before a taxation hearing, and the assistant registrar reduced WongP's tally of costs to $340,000 - about a third of the original demanded. When Mr Yeo and Ms Ho applied to have this decision reviewed, High Court judge Woo Bih Li eventually allowed a total sum of $370,000.

Sharma subsequently lodged a complaint to the Law Society of Singapore (Lawsoc), alleging, "I believe that the actions by the lawyers in grossly overcharging my wife by $637,009 (the difference between the original bill amount of $1.007 million and the $370,000 allowed by Justice Woo) are dishonourable and constitute grossly improper conduct."

Lawsoc's review committee (RC) looking into the complaint dismissed the charges against Yeo, on grounds that Yeo was not involved in the preparation of the bills, and therefore there was no misconduct on his part. Something akin to saying Hitler is not responsible in the extermination of 6 million Jews, since he did not operate the gas chambers.

Last we heard, Sharma was applying for a judicial review of this decision by the RC, first time ever someone in Singapore has applied for a judicial review of a review committee's decision - definitely a shoo-in entry for the Guinness Book of Records. He also had to apply for the admission of a Queen's Counsel, Michael Fordham, to represent him for the forbidding battle ahead as all of the over 20 Singapore Senior Counsels he approached declined to engage in legal combat. The heavy artillery is understandable since Yeo is also a People’s Action Party MP (Chua Chu Kang GRC). That plus the big bucks involved.
the list is long but distinguished....

26 comments:

  1. What an irony. Karma is a bitch. Remember Palmer. LOL

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    1. Ultimate karma is when the old fart sees his useless son and PAP become the opposition, and the word "repent" haunts him while he sleeps. LOL

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  2. The country had been overcharged for years paying for the fumblers and their minions at the top. Without big bucks you will not get justice.

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    1. WongP lawyers were merely practising the LKY philosophy of "what's wrong with collecting more money?" As to why Sharma could not hire any of the senior counsel, it is all about solidarity and working together in harmony under one famiLee....for 50 years.

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  3. For one blessed minute.
    I thought Deepak Sharma was seeking a judicial review of our CPF Minimum Sum under Tharman's vision of a set of ever "evolving" CPF rules.

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  4. Elites tearing at each other. This generation of elites were brought up without notion of accountability, not surprising they believe the whole world "owes them a (super-lux) living". Whose fault was it? Old fart taught them they were creme de la creme, above the ("stinking") masses. His motto: 'do whatever u want, take whatever u can justify'. Funny if we weren't the ones paying for his daily dose of placenta. Sad.

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  5. ".....Lawsoc's review committee (RC) looking into the complaint dismissed the charges against Yeo, on grounds that as Yeo was not involved in the preparation of the bills, and therefore there was no misconduct on his part. Something akin to saying Hitler is not responsible in the extermination of 6 million Jews, since he did not operate the gas chambers....

    They apply this principle to everything... and anywhere in TL companies.. with absolute impunity. Amazing mind... devoid of ethics & morals.

    Do they sleep well at night?

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    1. They sleep very well, thank u. Good class bungalows with jacuzzi beds when in red dot, and holiday resorts with room facing the mediterranean sea. Even teo would sleep well.

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    2. The buck stops below me, maybe a few levels below me just to be safe :) Why do they need to worry when the little red book says 'elites cannot be seen to be wrong'. The trade off is of course, even after raunchy flings with suppliers, still no conviction. Helping oneself to a few (more) millions here and there is peanuts, right Mr peanut? You grease me here, I lubricate you there ..... sorry I mean we scratch each other's back.

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  6. Let the elites live it up : )

    Cos that is all they will ever know...

    Until an always (biut the Elites are so blind here) imicable universe against intelligent lifeforms make them and their kids + kids kids equally extinct...

    And an imicable universe do not even have to perspire a single drop taking out man-kind...so easy...with "intelligent" 'Elites' like these in charge of man-kinds future.

    zzzzz

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  7. Heard many quoting 'What's wrong with collecting more money?'.
    And now, here in Sin there is this really hilarious instance of one claiming being overcharged by her legal defenders, who represented her to fight a charge of her overcharging her client in medical service.

    It appears that in Sin, moral and ethic can be defined by legal means and not by deeds of morality, integrity and virtue.

    What have our leaders done that those in the highest professions have no regard for proper behaviour but easily overwhelmed by greed?
    The Question that must be asked now is; IS THERE ANYMORE ORGANIZATION AND OR ANYONE WITH INTEGRITY TO MAKE JUDGEMENT OF OTHERS IN THIS SOCIETY?

    patriot

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  8. As far as PAP is concerned, greed is good. Without greed, there can be no power, power to arrest or sue anybody that threatens them.

    Paying themselves the moon to remain honest is bullshit because it is equally true if they had not been paid enough, they were actually dishonest to begin with?

    Seriously, what kind of logic is that LKY ?

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  9. To Anonymous @ 8/11/2014 11:54 AM:

    Wong Partnership was not her defence counsel. They were acting for the SMC, and she had to pay their fees.

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    1. Thank You very much for the Information.
      And apology for my mistake.

      patriot

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  10. GDP figures out tonite (many greedy top civil servants' year end bonus deeply at stake now because if GDP falls below 3%, "smaller" bonus for all at the top). After last quarter's -0.8% "growth", this quarter also expected to be negative, which means red dot will be officially in recession. But I suspect some smart scholars will be "tasked" to goal-seek some magical source of last minute growth last, just to avoid two consecutive quarters of negative "growth". Stay tuned, funny people of the la-la land.

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    1. GDP minus?... never in the wildest dreams will it ever be calculated to be minus!... its against the law!

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  11. The SMC can prove Dr Susan Lim overcharged the Brunei Royals. Her husband can get the court to reduce SMC's costs. LHL was a hero when he got Gerard Ee to reduce the ministers' pay but the daft citizens...? Who charge GIC 2.5% when 5-year returns was 0.5%?

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    1. Yes! there is no where else in the world that you can get a loan for billions at 2.5%... with zero penalty and in perpetuity... warren b would like to have that too.

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    2. I wonder why Susan Lim did not employ the same Leegal Defence, that she was not involved in the preparation of the bill. Reminds me of Chan Sek Keong's ruling in 1997: "Accordingly, those unauthorised persons who only wait or loiter inside a polling station on polling day do not commit any offence under the Act." All are Leegal.

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    3. They can not only loan your money to gamble, they can lose money (in Sing dollar terms) and still drive maserati, live in GCB, and still you cannot take your money back. Only in mafia-land and red dot can you get robbed but no recourse.

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    4. Ahhhhhh!... the good life of a banker... a gov sponsored banker... how to resign lidat?

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  12. Well, there was the Raffles Town Club, where the directors can borrow money without interest or pay later..

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  13. Nobody takes responsibility like in LKY time. Latest is the cock up at MOH, and the fear Minister said: it's not my fault, the IT vendor screwed up!

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    1. If the PAP government fails;
      It is not PAP's fault.
      Singaporeans are at fault because we trusted PAP and voted them in.

      But if PAP succeeds;
      Then all credit goes to PAP.
      Singaporeans have nothing to do with the success of Singapore.

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  14. Talking about overcharging, GDP just announced minutes ago, and guess what? Widely expected negative GDP miraculously avoided with a +0.1% "growth". Well done goal seek scholars of the MTI, thank you microsoft for providing such useful function in Excel. Worked every time to avoid a recession. Looking forward to more goal seeked GDP bonuses again.

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