What is the test for assessing a lawyer’s account in a personal injury case?

All of this puts the court is a difficult position. It is required to assess the lawyer’s account. The onus is on the law firm to satisfy the court as to the reasonableness of its account(s) in all the circumstances of the case. In satisfying that onus the law firm is not permitted to rely on the fact that the client did not defend the claim or did not appear at the assessment. As was noted by Justice Goodfellow in Turner-Lienaux v. Campbell 2002 NSSC 248, “[t]here is no taxation by default or absence. ... This onus remains upon the party seeking taxation and is not altered or shifted in any way by the nonattendance of the other party:” para.33.