I have a bill of costs which utilises various hourly rates for the “Grade C”, “Grade A” and “Costs Draftsman”. However, the bill fails to comply with Costs Practice Direction 4.5: “The background information included in the bill of costs should set out: (2) a statement of the status of the solicitor or solicitor’s employee …
When flying back from holiday the other day I was glancing at the on-board bar prices. (Despite living a multi-millionaire playboy lifestyle, I am too mean to pay for a flight that has a free bar.) They were selling 5cl miniatures of Bombay Sapphire gin (standard 40% strength) for £4 a bottle. By my maths, …
Ropewalk Chambers has an excellent article on their website by Andrew Hogan on how the current approach to hourly rates has led to a lack of proportionality and transparency in legal costs. This article was first presented to the Association of Law Costs Draftsmen at this year’s annual conference and has also appeared in the …
In a previous post I wrote that I was going to admit to being wrong on three occasions. Here is the second confession. Back in January, I predicted there would be no increase in the Guideline Hourly Rates. That prediction turned out to be inaccurate and the rates were indeed increased in April. However, as …
Will there be an increase in the Guideline Hourly Rates for 2010? The latest news is that the Master of the Rolls has decided to wait until after publication of Sir Rupert Jackson’s report of his review of Civil Litigation Costs before deciding whether to make any changes to the current Guideline Hourly Rates. That …
Lord Justice Jackson’s Preliminary Report on civil costs raises a number of concerns about whether any proper market forces operate in relation to lawyers’ hourly rates in personal injury claims: "For the claimant personal injury market in particular, where the majority of work is conducted under conditional fee agreements, the chargeable hourly rate recoverable …
Whether excessive legal costs are really a problem depends, in part, from what perspective you are considering matters. Defendants have little difficulty appreciating how problematic this issue is. However, claimant representatives have been far slower to join in the criticisms. How strange then that the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) should now join in …
APIL complains about excessive costs of litigation Read More »
The constant refrain from claimant representatives whenever a paying party seeks to question the accuracy of a bill of costs is that one should not seek to go behind the signature to the bill unless there is a “genuine issue” as to whether the bill is accurate, and the case of Bailey v IBC Vehicles …
The Advisory Committee on Civil Costs has released updated Guideline Hourly Rates to apply from 1st January 2009. It has been made clear that these are very much interim in nature and that further investigations will be conducted to determine whether the overall levels are appropriate. In particular, this will consider the 20-35% difference in …
The Advisory Committee on Civil Costs is in the process of a thorough review of the guideline hourly rates. However, pending its findings, the Committee has advised that the guideline rates from 1st January 2008 should be increased in line with the increase in average earnings in the private sector, currently 4%.
