What is the test for granting an assessment of a lawyer's bill beyond 30 days?

The Legal Profession Act, 1990, supra, anticipates that clients will apply for an assessment within 30 days of receiving a bill. If the client applies outside of the 30 days, the court may still grant the assessment if it is in the interests of justice to do so. In order to understand the meaning of the phrase “interests of justice”, courts have often referred to the interpretation given by Popescul J. in Doig v. Mazinke, 2007 SKQB 3; (2007), 291 Sask. R. 221: 10 The criteria which a court must now utilize when considering whether or not to allow an assessment of a lawyer's bill beyond 30 days from the day on which the person received the bill is considerably less stringent in the present legislation than it was in the replaced legislation. While the old Act contemplated "special circumstances" which suggested a positive obligation on the applicant to set forth factors that establish the existence of circumstances that are out of the ordinary, the new legislation simply provides the court with the discretion to abridge the time if satisfied that, "... it is in the interest of justice to do so". I interpret this to mean that the time can be abridged if the court is of the view that it would be fair to do so.