September 2011

I recently received the following exciting email from Lawyer Monthly magazine (never heard of it): Lawyer Monthly Magazine Legal Focus – UK – Costs Law Dear Simon, In the next edition of Lawyer Monthly, the Legal Focus editorial will be reporting on a number of key legal issues companies and organisations face relating to costs […]

District Judge Richard Chapman, senior vice-president of the Association of Her Majesty’s District Judges, recently wrote in the Solicitors Journal: “Senior Costs Judge Hurst has recently decided that interest on costs starts to run from the date of the costs certificate, not from the date when the order for costs was made, and further that

Costs law is such a pervasive and ever changing area of law that even more generalist legal publications are a source of endless interesting articles on the subject. Unfortunately, many of these articles go the way of so many other legal articles and are read once and then disappear under a pile of other old

Dominic Regan, the Association of Costs Lawyers’ new special adviser, in an article about to appear in the New Law Journal, will suggest that those opposing the introduction of a ban on referral fees are making a mistake. Some solution is required to excessive costs in RTA claims and the alternative might well be an

The Association of Costs Lawyers’ new special adviser Dominic Regan, writing in the New Law Journal, discussed the case of Howell v Lees-Millais [2011] EWCA Civ 786. This case concerned a Beddoes application (see Re Beddoe, Downes v Cottam (1893) 1 Ch 547). A trustee is enabled to seek guidance from the court on whether

One of the amendments to the 57th Update to the Civil Procedure Rules, which comes into force on 1 October 2011, introduces costs capping rules in relation to trust funds. What is peculiar about this change is, so far as I can see on a brief review, it does not give any guidance as to

The Government has announced it will ban the payment of referral fees in personal injury cases.  

Costs lawyers and law costs draftsmen not engaged in defamation proceedings may be forgiven for not getting too exited about the 57th Update to the Civil Procedure Rules extending the Defamation Proceedings Costs Management Scheme for another year. However, to do so would be a big mistake.  It would equally be a mistake for those

The Insurance Times has reported that the volume of whiplash claims has shot up by a third over the past three years. Figures obtained from the Department of Work and Pensions show that 571,111 whiplash claims were registered with the Compensation Recovery Unit in 2010-11. This is a one-third jump on the widely quoted figure

The 57th Update to the Civil Procedure Rules extends the County Court Provisional Assessment Pilot Scheme for another year. (I thinks that sets a record as being my shortest post.)