SINGAPORE, Jan 12 — A Singapore court has reportedly cut the legal fees charged by a lawyer after finding them to be excessive, following earlier judicial scrutiny of his billing practices.
District Judge Chiah Kok Khun cut fees claimed by Vijay Kumar Rai of Arbiters Inc Law Corporation from S$108,225 (about RM440,000) to S$34,000 for work carried out over seven months in 2023, Singapore’s The Straits Times reported yesterday.
Rai had acted for beauty salon De Beaute in a civil suit against a former employee and initially provided a fee estimate of S$70,000 for work up to the end of trial.
De Beaute reportedly paid the firm’s first seven bills, each amounting to about S$4,000 to S$5,000, for a combined total of S$33,286.
However, before trial dates were fixed, Arbiters reportedly issued an eighth invoice in September 2023 charging S$40,000, prompting the client to discharge the firm and apply for the court to assess the bills.
In written grounds issued on December 22, 2025, Judge Chiah said the fees claimed were “plainly excessive”, citing earlier High Court findings and ruling that the matter was not as complex as argued.
Previous appeals by Arbiters were dismissed by the High Court in March 2025, with Justice Dedar Singh Gill similarly finding the amounts billed to be excessive.
The case follows a December 2024 ruling by the Appellate Division of the High Court, which found Rai had overcharged parents in a negligence suit over their son’s suicide, cutting the firm’s bill from about S$370,000 to S$87,000.
The court also reportedly referred his conduct to the Law Society of Singapore for a disciplinary inquiry.
