You recently published a valuable reminder of the Family Division's new mandatory, comprehensive and onerous practice direction about court bundles, and a warning of wasted costs orders for non-compliance (see [2006] Gazette, 19 October, 31).

The article speculates on how the Legal Services Commission might react to the cost of the inevitable additional work involved, not to mention the costs impact on private clients in many cases. The cost per case would surely be much reduced, and an invaluable element of uniformity introduced, if a template/precedent/skeleton were to be drafted and published by the Courts Service (which has the benefit of substantial court fees paid by practitioners/ parties).


Derek Phillips, Phillips & Co, Salisbury