Fixed Costs Webinar
Very interesting webinar from costs counsel Andrew Hogan and Paul Hughes on the upcoming fixed costs extension.
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Costs Zoominars
Kerry Underwood’s continues his popular costs Zoominars this month. He will be talking about the Civil Justice Council Costs Consultation on 5 October 2022 and the Fixed Recoverable Costs Extension on 11 October 2022. Recordings are available whether or not you attend. £35 for one Zoominar; £50 for both Zoominars – plus VAT in each
Provisional assessment and £75,000 figure
Inter partes bills of costs that do not exceed £75,000 are normally subject to provisional assessment. Where a case does not go beyond provisional assessment, the maximum amount the court can award either party in respect of the costs of assessment is £1,500, plus VAT, plus the court fee. Is not uncommon for a bill
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Good reason to set aside Default Costs Certificate
Practice Directions do not have the same status as the Civil Procedure Rules themselves. Sometimes the Practice Directions are misleading. Sometimes they are simply wrong (eg KU (A Child) v LCC [2005] EWCA Civ 475). One example of the Practice Directions being misleading/wrong is in relation to the issue of setting aside a Default Costs
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Risky bet
Off-topic. I am currently reading the diaries of my late aunt that were written in the 1950s. Many of the entries relate to her husband visiting Wembley dog track and his relative success/failure in terms of the bets he placed. Entry from 18 February 1952: “Charles went dogging in the evening with unfortunate results.” If
Departing from Guideline Hourly Rates
In Samsung Electronics Co Ltd v LG Display Co Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 466 the Court of Appeal observed that a “clear and compelling justification must be provided” to depart upwards from London 1 Guideline Hourly Rates (GHRs) as “the guideline rates for London 1 already assume that the litigation in question qualifies as ‘very heavy
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Costs seminar
Excellent costs update from Hailsham Chambers available to view: Hailsham Costs Seminar Includes very exciting news that Mark Friston’s latest edition of Friston on Costs may be with us soon.
Ideal length of retainer documents
Part of my work involves drafting conditional fee agreements for solicitors and advising them on their other retainer documents, such as client care letters. Another part of my work involves advising lay client as to the retainer documents that they have been sent by their solicitors. This dual role gives me the opportunity to see
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Impact of inflation on costs
A client recently asked me my view as to the impact of the current upsurge in inflation on cost matters. These are my initial thoughts: Interest on unpaid costs currently runs at 8%. When the Bank of England base rate was very low, and inflation was very low, this 8% return on unpaid costs was
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Law Society CFA unenforceable?
Recent posts have looked at some of the drafting problems with the Law Society’s (old) model conditional fee agreement. I am grateful to loyal reader of the Legal Costs Blog, Jacques Hughes, for pointing out the rather more significant problem in that all these agreements are probably unenforceable. s58(1) of the Courts and Legal Services
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