The nice people at 4 New Square invited me to their Summer Party on Tuesday evening. Although the weather was terrible, they had had the sense to book an indoor venue.
In addition to their own embarrassment of riches in terms of their specialist costs counsel, there were also a number of other costs practitioners attending as guests and it gave me the opportunity to catch up on the latest news and gossip from the costs world.
In no particular order:
- Word on the grapevine is that Lord Justice Jackson is likely to recommend next moth that fixed costs are introduced for all claims with a value of up to £100,000, as opposed to his previously mooted figure of £250,000. This may be no more than rumour and we will shortly know for sure.
- One experienced costs draftsman was of the view that the Jackson reforms to date had led to approximately 50% of independent costs firms closing and job losses in the profession running at a similar level.
- In September 2014, a record number of almost 200 new students started the Costs Lawyer training course. Current numbers are barely in double figures.
- One well-informed source estimated that once the full Jackson shake-up has gone through we may be left with around 200 practising Costs Lawyers.
Plenty for me to comment on in the coming days, weeks and months.
1 thought on “Latest costs news gossip”
Just my penny’s worth;
1. Fixed costs for £250,000.00 will come in, it is just a question of how long in the timeline. Look at the pilot now introduced on £250,000.00, no doubt it will be ‘received greatly’ by the Judiciary, Claimants and Defendants alike and the pilot extended and extended until no longer a pilot scheme but standard practice.
2. Sounds about right in the region of 50%. Think of how many costs firms you no longer hear of and those ones that have merged, LCN and GM just one example of larger costs firms that themselves have had to ‘merge’.
3. No personal knowledge.
4. Not a bad guesstimate, but let’s be positive and say 300 with the same unqualified Costs Draftsman with a great deal more Solicitors muddling their way through the fixed costs minefield without thinking to challenge technicalities for not being profitable enough to challenge.