New twist in Susan Lim case

Surgeon Susan Lim lost her case of overcharging her royal patient from Brunei. Now her husband (who is funding her legal cost) claims that the Singapore Medical Council’s lawyers have overcharged her for the Council’s legal fees.

Since she lost her case, she has to pay the legal fees of SMC’s lawyers, which was originally set at $1.007 million. Lim filed notices to dispute the legal fees.

The High Court reduced the bill to $370,000.

After the reduction, her husband made a complaint to the Law Society of Singapore that Lim was overcharged by the SMC’s lawyers.

The Business Times reported this today.

The lawyers for the council are Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho of WongPartnership; Yeo is also a PAP MP.

Dr Lim’s husband, Deepak Sharma, the ex-Citi Private Bank global chairman, complained:

“I believe that the actions by the lawyers in grossly overcharging my wife by $637,009 (the difference between the original bill amount of $1.007 million and the $370,000 allowed by the High Court) are dishonourable and constitute grossly improper conduct.”

The Review Committee set up to look into the case said there was no misconduct on the part of Yeo because the bills were prepared by his firm and not by him.

Not satisfied by this decision, Sharma is applying for a judicial review. He wants the court to quash the decision and appoint a new RC to review his complaint.