{"id":626988,"date":"2026-04-24T02:43:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626988\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:43:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:43:20","slug":"law-firm-ordered-by-nsw-supreme-court-to-pay-broken-hill-council-more-than-4-7m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626988\/","title":{"rendered":"Law firm ordered by NSW Supreme Court to pay Broken Hill council more than $4.7m"},"content":{"rendered":"

A NSW Supreme Court judge has ordered a Sydney-based law firm and some related companies to pay more than $4.7 million to the Broken Hill City Council.<\/p>\n

It comes almost a month after Justice Elizabeth Peden ruled the council had been “mostly successful” in its claims against former legal provider Redenbach Legal, which it took to court for alleged overcharging<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Submission of the final orders had been postponed pending further discussions between the parties, with Justice Peden holding a further hearing last week before issuing her final decision on April 16.<\/p>\n

Justice Peden also ordered the Redenbach parties to cover the legal fees of the council, and its current and former general managers, who had been subject to a now-dismissed cross-claim.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

A civil hearing between the parties took place in Sydney between February and March. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)<\/p>\n

Relationship sours over alleged overcharging<\/p>\n

Proceedings were first launched in 2023, with the council looking to recoup some of its legal fees from Redenbach Legal and its principal solicitor, Keith Redenbach.<\/p>\n

However, council general manager Jay Nankivell said the case’s history actually went back close to 10 years.<\/p>\n

“[It] initially started with the incomplete build of the Broken Hill Civic Centre renovations,” Mr Nankivell said.<\/p>\n

“There was obviously the ombudsman investigation<\/a> that was looped into that as well, at the same time, complicating matters, so that was the best part of five years in regards to legal action there.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

It is understood the dispute was tied to litigation over renovations to the city’s civic centre. (ABC Broken Hill: Bill Ormonde)<\/p>\n

Mr Nankivell said the action was undertaken by Mr Redenbach and his firm, initially under the name Redenbach Lee Lawyers, in the council’s disputes with architecture firm Allen Jack+Cottier, now known as AJC Architects, and builder Unique Urban Built.<\/p>\n

However, when the council finally received its bill of costs in 2022 from Passer Par, a company understood to also be affiliated with Mr Redenbach, it found the fees eclipsed the settlement it had received from the architects.<\/p>\n

Broken Hill Mayor Tom Kennedy has previously reported that the council’s total fees exceeded $10 million<\/a>, incurred over several years and legal matters.<\/p>\n

Mr Nankivell has confirmed the figure, with the total gains and losses to be made public in a report at an upcoming council meeting.<\/p>\n

More news from Broken HillJudge mostly sides with council<\/p>\n

Subsequent civil action between the council and Redenbach parties was ultimately heard in the Supreme Court over several days<\/a> between February 23 and March 12 this year.<\/p>\n

Proceedings also included a cross-claim from the Redenbach parties against the council, Mr Nankivell and former general manager James Roncon over claimed unpaid invoices.<\/p>\n

However, in her initial March 25 judgment, Justice Peden dismissed this cross-claim and found mostly in favour of the council, while also referring to Mr Redenbach as a “thoroughly unimpressive witness”.<\/p>\n

\"young<\/p>\n

Jay Nankivell gave evidence in the hearing on behalf of the council. (Supplied: Broken Hill City Council)<\/p>\n

Then, in her later April 16 judgment, she described the conduct displayed by the Redenbach parties throughout litigation as “unreasonable”, ruling they should pay the legal costs of the council, Mr Nankivell and Mr Roncon on an indemnity basis.<\/p>\n

Mr Nankivell said in total, the council was awarded a settlement worth close to $4 million, including costs, plus more than $786,000 in pre-judgement interest, which was a “fantastic outcome”.<\/p>\n

“[It was] certainly a big relief for all of the councillors involved that’d gone down this process for the last few years [in] recouping this money,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It ended up being a settlement and a win [that was] better than what council had anticipated.”<\/p>\n

Mr Nankivell said the council was also entitled to further costs for work not done, which would be determined separately by an independent cost assessor.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The now-closed Redenbach Legal offices on Broken Hill’s main street. (ABC News: Oliver Brown)<\/p>\n

Appeal window open<\/p>\n

Although the final judgement has been handed down, the Redenbach parties can appeal the decision if they believe there was a legal or factual error committed during the process.<\/p>\n

Generally, a notice of intention to appeal needs to be filed within 28 days after the judgement is handed down.<\/p>\n

The ABC contacted Redenbach Legal for comment, specifically asking if it or Mr Redenbach intended to appeal, but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NSW Supreme Court judge has ordered a Sydney-based law firm and some related companies to pay more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[303803,303801,303804,303808,43,303807,303806,303805,83251,44,85241,303802,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-626988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bhcc-v-redenbach","tag-broken-hill-city-council","tag-broken-hill-city-council-v-redenbach-legal","tag-civil-litigation","tag-headlines","tag-jay-nankivell","tag-justice-peden","tag-keith-redenbach","tag-legal-costs","tag-news","tag-nsw-supreme-court","tag-redenbach-legal","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}