Hey Guys,
to Summarize:
My father in his 70's was scammed out of a fairly large amount of money over 2 1/2 years ago. After a long wait for a court case to take place (Due to covid & the civil unrest in Hong Kong) he finally had his day in court on the 31st of January with the Judge ruling in favour to return said frozen money back into my fathers account.
A draft court order has been put together an will be handed to the bank to execute on in a weeks time. There is some wording in the court order that I am trying to get clarity on that I hope someone who has a legal background might be able to interpret. That wording is the following:
"The 1st Defendant do pay the Plaintiff's costs of and incidental to these proceedings on an indemnity basis with certificate of counsel, to be taxed if not agreed; there be no order as to costs as between the Plaintiff and the 2nd Defendant.
1st Defendant = Scammer
2nd Defendant = Bank where scammer account is held
Plaintiff = My father
Before anyone asks, I can reach out to the appointed lawyer in Hong Kong for clarifcation on this point, but given they charge just over 1000 AUD an hour, if I can at least fully clarify this point its just one less question I need to ask.
My interpretation is that the 1st Defendant is liable to pay my fathers legal costs. To what extent,its not clear.
This really shouldn't be something to ask online from random people, esp here, as it seems to have significant consequences. You can get a local lawyer for far less than that an hour to give you some advice on this and other things.
Else you can try: https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/