Lawyers can claim medical agency fees as legitimate disbursements under the fixed-costs scheme for road traffic cases, the Senior Costs Judge ruled last week.

Sitting as a recorder in the much-anticipated Woollard v Fowler (SCCO Ref 050071), Peter Hurst decided that the fees charged by Mobile Doctors for supplying medical reports and records were reasonable and proportionate, and could be recovered in full as a disbursement under rule 45.10(2) of the Civil Procedure Rules.


Overturning the decision of Master Seager-Berry, he said there was no reason why the advent of the fixed-costs regime should alter the established practice of treating medical agencies' fees as disbursements, provided they are reasonable and proportionate.


Had the decision gone the other way, it could have destroyed the medical agencies industry.


Mobile Doctors managing director Matthew Game said the judgment was good news for claimants, solicitors and agencies alike. It would also benefit insurers, he insisted, as they would no longer have to spend money arguing about costs.


A statement from the Forum of Insurance Lawyers expressed disappointment. 'The paying party should know to a high level of certainty that the expense of a claimant's representative in a specified class of case will fall at a predictable level,' it said. 'This starts to fall away if the solicitor can sub-contract work to a third party and claim for the expense of that work on top of profit costs.'