The Committee is required to review all legal costs scales in force at least once within two years of it being made.
Chair
Mr Matthew Curwood SC, Member – appointed 2009, appointed 2023
Matt Curwood is the Chair of the Legal Costs Committee having been appointed to that role in 2023. He has been a member of the Committee since 2009. Matt holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Australia (1992) and was admitted to legal practice in December 1993.
Matt is a member of the Independent Bar having joined Francis Burt Chambers in 2012. He practises in areas of wills and estates and general civil and commercial litigation.
Matt was appointed as Senior Counsel for the State of Western Australia in 2020. Matt is also a contributing author to the LexisNexis publication Civil Procedure in Western Australia.
Deputy Chair
Mr Craig McKie, Member – appointed 2022
Craig McKie has been a member of the Legal Costs Committee since 2022. Craig was admitted to practice in 1985 and has practises in complicated succession planning, estate administration and contentious estates and trusts.
Craig is a sole practitioner with experience in commercial law, property law and commercial litigation and provides pro-bono legal services.
Members
Dr Janice Dudley, Member – appointed 2005
Prior to her retirement Dr Janice Dudley was Associate Dean Learning and Teaching in the School of Business and Governance at Murdoch University, teaching in Politics and International Studies and the Sir Walter Murdoch School of Public Policy and International Affairs. She co-ordinated Murdoch University’s award-winning Public Policy Internship program, and also the Sir Walter Murdoch School Research Internship. She was also the inaugural Program Director of the Murdoch Horizons Year 12 Summer School.
She was a community member of the former Legal Practitioner Complaints Committee from 1998 to 2005.
Mr Greg Rickie, Member– appointed 2022
Greg Rickie was appointed as a member in 2022. Greg holds a Diploma in Public Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Management (Flinders University). Greg retired from the Department of Justice in 2015 where he obtained extensive experience in metropolitan and country courts.
Greg managed the integration of the Indian Ocean Territories Courts into the Western Australian justice system.
Greg was the Deputy Sheriff from 2001 to 2013 and acted as the Sheriff of Western Australia for 5 years within that period.
Greg is the former Registrar/Executive Manager of the Prisoners Review Board from 2013 to 2015.
Mrs Annette Morgan, Member – appointed 2022
Annette is the accountant on the Committee. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Taxation) and a Masters of Taxation from Curtin University WA. Annette is a registered Tax Agent with the Tax Practitioners Board and runs a Small to Medium Enterprise practice as well as being the Director of the Curtin Tax Clinic (a pro bono taxation clinic within Curtin University).
Annette is the Course Lead for Taxation and a taxation lecturer at Curtin University Law School. She also holds several preeminent professional qualifications and memberships directly linked to the tax profession, including the Chartered Tax Advisor designation with the Taxation Institute of Australia. Annette was awarded the 2021 Tax Advisor of the Year and is a Fellow of CPA Australia (FCPA). She is President of the Australasian Tax Teachers Association and sits of several taxation committees at a National and State level.
Mrs Carolyn Meighan - appointed 2023
Carolyn has more than 20 years’ experience as a commercial litigation solicitor in Perth. She has advised clients in relation to a broad range of legal matters, including property and strata titles, planning, employment, competition and consumer law, contracts, debt recovery and enforcement, statutory interpretation and construction and wills and estates. Carolyn has acted in proceedings before various Courts and Tribunals, including the Magistrates Court, the District Court, the Supreme Court, the Federal Court, the High Court, the State Administrative Tribunal and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
As part of this work Carolyn has represented clients in negotiations as to costs and the taxation of costs in these various jurisdictions. Carolyn has also regularly appeared as counsel in applications relating to costs orders. Carolyn has a particular interest in costs and costs assessments.
