The fee structure for detailed costs assessments is set to change amid complaints from the Senior Costs Judge that it fails to encourage early settlement.



In an interview with the Gazette's sister publication, Litigation Funding, Peter Hurst said he was frustrated by how often cases settle at the door of the Supreme Court Costs Office (SCCO).



'If you get a five-day hearing that settles at the last minute, you are completely stuck - you cannot relist anything and it means everyone else in the queue is a week or fortnight behind where they would otherwise have been,' he said.



Master Hurst said the answer is to look at the fee for assessments, because it does not currently encourage early settlement. 'It could be differently structured. In the past, you paid a percentage fee in advance and if you managed to settle a significant time before the hearing date - early enough to enable something else to be listed - you received a refund. There is nothing like that now - you pay £600 and that's it. Some of the cases that come through this office are absolutely enormous but you still pay £600.'



A spokesman from the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) said: 'We recognise that the current fee for detailed assessments does not reflect the cost of providing the service. We will be consulting shortly on proposals to introduce a banded system of fees.'



Graham Huntley, immediate past president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, said 'there is obvious merit in the fee reflecting the amount of work involved', and pointed out that although £600 can be too little for a large bill, it can also be too much for a small one.



He added: 'Many years ago the fee used to be a percentage of around 5%. A concept of a flat fee came in with the Civil Procedure Rules and was slightly at odds with the thinking of the time, which was that there should be value-based recovery of court costs, and is the principle adopted within the High Court.'



Meanwhile, Master Hurst also revealed that talks have begun between the Civil Justice Council and the DCA about the creation of a costs council, which would oversee setting guideline hourly rates, review the level of predictable costs and other related matters.

Neil Rose