Complaint filed against smc member who charged $40k to testify against dr susan lim

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COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST SMC MEMBER WHO CHARGED $40K TO TESTIFY AGAINST DR SUSAN LIM

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23 Oct 2014 - 7:04pm








The case of the law firm Wong Partnership overcharging their client has been in the news lately but in the latest development, the husband of Dr Susan Lim is now filing a complaint against one of the “expert witnesses” called by the Singapore Medical Council during the trial.

This new complaint is also about the expert witness, Dr Hong Ga Sze , overcharging his fees for being a witness.

The original case was a dispute between the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) and Dr Susan Lim as Dr Lim had been accused of overcharging her patient.
The SMC had hired lawyers Melanie Ho and PAP MP Alvin Yeo from Wong Parternship for the court case and they won the case.

As the losing party, Dr Susan Lim was ordered to pay the legal fees of the winning party but when she received the bill, she was shocked to find that it totalled over $1.33 million.

She disputed the bill and the High Court ruled that Wong Partnership could only charge $317,000.
(See: Court Rules that Lawyer, PAP MP Alvin Yeo overcharged $1million in Legal Fees)

The Law Society of Singapore later also rejected a complaint filed against Lawyer and PAP MP Alvin Yeo for misconduct in overcharging claiming that he was not the one in charge of billing and that he had not actually “overcharged” despite the high court slashing his fees.
(See: Law Society: Lawyer's bill reduced doesn't mean Alvin Yeo's Law Firm Overcharged)

As part of the fee cuts, it was discovered that one of the inflated costs contained in the bill was a $40,000 fee charged by Dr Hong Ga Sze, a doctor who was called to give a testimony against Dr Susan Lim in her trial.

Dr Hong had explained to the court the standard charging practices for doctors.

However, his own bill to Wong Partnership was described as “very high”, “exorbitant”, “disproportionately high” and “questionable” by the High Court.

Dr Hong’s fees were as follows:

• $14,000 for “pre-trial discussions with WongPartnership” between 18 Mar 2009 to 3 Feb 2010
• $6,000 for “standby for trial” on 4 Feb 2010
• $14,000 for “expert evidence” on 8 Apr 2010
• $6,000 for “preparation of trial report”

The “expert evidence” which he gave was mainly only relating to how doctors usually charge patients.

In the end, the High Court slashed his fees to only $5,000.

Further investigations following the slashing of his bills also showed that Dr Hong is an SMC council member.

Now, Dr Susan Lim’s husband is filing an official complaint with the SMC for Dr Hong’s overcharging.

The matter is now with the SMC’s complaints committee which will decide whether Dr Hong should be brought before a disciplinary tribunal for his overcharging.

However, many netizens are doubtful that anything will be done as Dr Hong already sits on the SMC council.

Similar to how Alvin Yeo had not had anything done against him despite it being proven in the High Court that he charged $1 million in excess legal fees.

What do you think?


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