Legal Cost Specialists
There exists something of a disconnect between how busy costs practitioners tend to tell you they are and what the market would suggest. Certainly, most costs lawyers and costs draftsmen would have you believe they are very busy and business is booming. Sadly, the visible evidence suggests everything is not quite so rosy. Just Costs […]
Just Costs gone (again) Read More »
The White Paper Conference Company has lined up another excellent costs conference on Costs Litigation: Shaping New Law into Solution-Focused Answers for Your Clients on 13 March 2019. The speakers include: Regional Costs Judge Ian Besford, Alexander Hutton QC, Judith Ayling (39 Essex Street), Roger Mallalieu (4 New Square), David Marshall (Anthony Gold Solicitors), Alice Nash (Hailsham
White Paper Costs Conference Read More »
In Ndole Assets Ltd v Designer M&E Services UK Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 2865 the Court of Appeal was faced with the issue: “Is service of a claim form a reserved legal activity for the purposes of the Legal Services Act 2007 (the 2007 Act)? And if it is, does service of a claim form where
Unlawful service by unregulated person Read More »
Shortly before Christmas the new edition of Friston on Costs landed on my doormat. Obviously, I do not mean that literally. They have yet to design a letterbox large enough for a book this size and, if you order online, the description has a two-person delivery symbol beside it to indicate the number needed to
PD 47 para.5.1 requires an electronic bill of costs for any work undertaken after 6 April 2018 where the claim is a Part 7 multi-track claim. The Practice Direction contains no sanction for failing to comply with this requirement. CPR 44.11 provides: “(1) The court may make an order under this rule where
Failure to serve electronic bill of costs Read More »
I had anticipated that the case of Culliford & Anor v Thorpe [2018] EWHC 2532 (Ch) would be the last word we would hear on the subject of interim payments for costs. In that case the court had to decide whether it had the power to order an interim costs payment after the original costs order
Interim costs payment following acceptance of Part 36 offer Read More »
The SCCO has published the updated Senior Courts Costs Office Guide 2018. This is the first update since 2013. It provides a helpful summary of a number of procedural points. It also provides a useful list of the current Regional Costs Judges.
Senior Courts Costs Office Guide 2018 Read More »
The decision of Mr Justice Walker in Page v RGC Restaurants Ltd [2018] EWHC 2688 (QB) provides further important guidance on the costs budgeting process and is essential reading for those involved in costs budgeting. The underlying case was subject to costs budgeting. The parties decided between themselves, without consulting the Court, that the budgets
Defective costs budgets Read More »
The Legal Costs Blog keeps being pulled back to the issue of the timing of orders for interim payments of costs between the parties.The current wording of the relevant rules is to be found at CPR 44.2(8): “Where the court orders a party to pay costs subject to detailed assessment, it will order that party
Timing of payments on account Read More »
Of the various costs building wheezes that some claimant firms engage in, having a second (or third) junior fee earner attend conferences with Counsel, to take notes, is one of the classics. When this issue arises at detailed assessment, I know at least one costs judge who confirms that, when he was a practising solicitor,
Second fee earner attending conference Read More »