Who we are

John Colonna – Principal Lawyer & Director 

John is the Principal Lawyer and Director of Costs Law.

He is an Accredited Costs Law Specialist with the Law Institute of Victoria. He currently sits on the Law Institute of Victoria's Costs Law Executive Committee and the Costs Law Advisory Committee.

John has practiced exclusively as a Costs Lawyer since his admission to practice, initially at a private firm of costs consultants and then at a major national plaintiff-focused legal practice. He is also the former Principal Lawyer and Manager of LIV Costs Lawyers, which conducts the legal costing activities of the Law Institute of Victoria.

John appears regularly as an advocate before the Costs Court both in mediations and upon taxation of contested bills of costs. He is experienced in assisting firms settle matters efficiently and economically, including in advising as to appropriate ranges for negotiation.

His experience as a costs advocate gives him invaluable expertise in drawing itemised bills of costs and objections. Being regularly exposed to rulings made on items in bills of costs, John is well placed to advise solicitors how to maximise their costs recovery, or minimise their clients’ liability to pay another party’s costs.

John has also been engaged as an expert witness and prepared thousands of assessments of costs both on a party/party and solicitor/client basis on all scales in the Victorian and Federal jurisdictions.

On numerous occasions John has been called upon by the Legal Services Board and Commissioner to advise on the basis of various costs agreements and to assess the reasonableness of legal costs charged by a law practice to their client.

John regularly presents compulsory professional development sessions and workshops to legal practitioners on legal costs and their compliance with the Legal Profession Uniform Law.

John currently sits on the WorkSafe and Transport Accident Commission (TAC) Costs Consultant Panels.