Call for costs regulation

REPORT: negotiators who abuse the system to reduce or recover costs under fire

Costs draftsmen and negotiators should be regulated and granted rights of audience, according to a report published this week.The report by the Association of Law Costs Draftsmen (ALCD) is targeted at abuses by costs negotiators, who work to either reduce the costs of legal bills or recover costs.It concluded: 'There is a clear need for costs negotiators to be regulated and subject to strict education and training guidelines, if the numerous complaints against them are ever to be overcome, and if they are to practice on a level playing field with the professional costs draftsmen.'Matthew Harman, chairman of ALCD - an association that claims to represent three quarters of costs draftsmen - said the report came as complaints increased.He said: 'No one is saying that all costs negotiators are to blame, but some working for insurance companies take a mob approach, and do not act in a professional manner.'Payment of costs negotiators is also a concern, as it is believed some take payment as a percentage of bills saved or recovered, which might offend against the law on champerty, because the level of fee is determined by the result obtained.Mr Harman said the ALCD was ready to take on the role of regulator of costs draftsmen if the need arose.

The report said a system of practising certificates should be introduced to effect this.

'A by-product of the issue of practising certificates will be to advance the association's objective of obtaining rights of audience for its members,' it added.Former Law Society president Tony Girling, a costs expert, said he sympathised with costs draftsmen who find themselves in competition with a new satellite industry, which increases costs and gets further away from the original aims of the Woolf reforms.LINKS www.alcd.org.ukJeremy Fleming