Legal Cost Specialists
The Legal Services Board (LSB) is apparently minded to refuse the Cost Lawyer Standards Board’s (CLSB) proposals to introduce a new route of entry into the profession. The LSB chief executive Neil Buckley said: “Having considered the application and responses provided by the CLSB to a number of issues that the LSB has raised, the […]
Warning issued over proposed new Costs Lawyer training course Read More »
The Civil Litigation Brief blog contained an interesting post about the dangers of lawyers working on the move and being overheard discussing confidential client matters or allowing confidential information to be read over their shoulders or leaving legal papers behind. The costs profession is not immune. Of the various examples given on Twitter: “Absolutely correct.
When dealing with high value personal injury litigation, paying parties tend not to lose much sleep over the issue of whether VAT should be paid on the full amount of medical records fees, where the medical records are obtained through a medical reporting organisation (“MRO”), or whether VAT should only apply to the MRO’s administration
VAT on medical agency fees Read More »
For many years, a large number of personal injury solicitors have automatically charged their clients a 100% success fee regardless of the risks of the case. This has been a standard business model for many firms, with the reasoning being that this will usually lead to an automatic 25% cut of the client’s general and
Automatic 100% success fees banned Read More »
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced its intention to implement Sir Rupert Jackson’s proposals for extending fixed recoverable costs to most cases worth up to £100,000. However, rather than introducing a new intermediate track for cases worth £25,000 to £100,000, as Sir Rupert had suggested, it proposes extending the fast-track to claims worth up
Massive extension of fixed costs announced Read More »
A new pilot scheme starts on 1 April 2019 for a new Statement of Costs for Summary Assessment. The pilot: Will run from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2021. Applies to all claims, regardless of when “commenced” (presumably meaning when issued), that are subject to summary assessment. The two new forms that have been
New Statement of Costs for Summary Assessment pilot Read More »
I recently looked at the case of Beardmore v Lancashire County Council where the court allowed recovery of medical agency fees (limited to £30 in addition to the direct costs) for obtaining medical records in an EL/PL Portal claim. These records were presumably obtained by the medial agency from the GP/hospital under the Data Protection (Subject
GDPR and medical records Read More »
In Beardmore v Lancashire County Council (County Court at Liverpool, 1/2/19), His Honour Judge Graham Wood QC allowed the claimant to recover medical agency fees incurred in obtaining medical records in an EL/PL Portal claim despite the fact there is no express allowance for this in the CPR, unlike the RTA Portal rules. A medical agency
Cost of obtaining medical records in EL/PL Portal claims Read More »
A new Precedent R costs budget discussion report form has been produced that will come into force from 25 April 2019 (last page here). In terms of changes to the current version: The form now includes incurred costs. This may, in part, have been to avoid confusion as to what figures were meant to be
New Precedent R costs budget discussion report Read More »
The front page of the Precedent H form for costs budgets has a section at the bottom for completion of the costs of the costs budgeting process: [wptg_comparison_table id=”1″] I routinely see budgets served where this part of the form has been completed, calculated by reference to 1% or 2% of the total of the
Costs of completing Precedent H Read More »