CFAs: Teacher Stern Selby claiming £400,000 in costs, including 100% success fee


The lawyers for footballer Ashley Cole have claimed a victory over the 'common misconception' that solicitors have to disclose their conditional fee agreements (CFAs) automatically.



The Gazette's sister publication, Litigation Funding, reports this month that the hearing before Master Haworth at the Supreme Court Costs Office followed last year's settlement of libel claims against News Group Newspapers (NGN).



Mr Cole's solicitors, London firm Teacher Stern Selby, are claiming £400,000 in costs (including a 100% success fee) and Farrer & Co for NGN applied for disclosure of the CFA as voluntary disclosure was refused.



Farrers relied on the Court of Appeal's comments on disclosure in Hollins v Russell [2003] EWCA Civ 718, and the Pamplin procedure. Teacher Stern Selby argued that Hollins only referred to CFAs made under the 2000 regulations and said CFAs like this one made after 1 November 2005 need only comply with section 58 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, namely that they be in writing and signed.



Master Haworth found that as points of dispute had not been served, rule 47.14 of the Civil Procedure Rules and paragraph 40.14 of the Costs Practice Direction - under which the court could order disclosure - had not been engaged.



'What is clear is that that procedure cannot be engaged before the detailed assessment, or a request for detailed assessment has been sought,' he said, adding later: 'Whilst it may be helpful for the paying party to have a copy of the CFA at this stage, in my judgment I do not have the power to make the order.'



Teacher Stern Selby solicitor Navinder Grover said: 'It is for the defendant to particularise its "genuine issue" in points of dispute without sight of their opponent's CFA. The costs judge must then adjudicate on this under the Pamplin procedure before a claimant is put to his election whether or not to disclose the CFA.'



Whether Hollins applies to post-November 2005 cases was not decided, but Mr Grover argued that as long as section 58 compliance is confirmed, 'it is difficult to envisage the circumstances in which a paying party can claim there is a Pamplin genuine issue'.



Points of dispute and a fresh request for the CFA have now been served. Mr Grover said Teacher Stern Selby has told Farrers to raise a genuine issue.



Farrers declined to comment.



Neil Rose