Final costs of £267,750 have been paid following the epic Belsner costs challenge litigation – all over a dispute worth £321.

Concluding payments were received last week by Norfolk firm CAM Legal Services, the successful party in the proceedings.

It is understood that Manchester-based Clear Legal, which jointly ran the costs recovery claim alongside checkmylegalfees.com, paid the costs in full, with its client Darya Belsner not required to pay anything.

The Court of Appeal had already ordered the claimant to make an interim payment of £130,000 in 2022, after costs were assessed on the standard basis. The final costs include the initial assessment by District Judge Bellamy, two subsequent appeals and the detailed costs assessment.

The case raised important questions about the way solicitors charge their clients for bringing low-value road traffic accident claims. CAM Legal had settled the PI claim at stage two for around £1,900 plus fixed costs of £500 and retained £321.25 (25%) of the damages as a success fee.

The client later instructed checkmylegalfees.com to query the solicitors’ charging. She was unsuccessful in the county court but won on first appeal, with Mr Justice Lavender permitting CAM to charge only the £500 fixed costs plus a £75 success fee.

The case then went to the Court of Appeal in 2022, where judges restored the success fee in full.

Master of the rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos said it was ‘unsatisfactory that solicitors like checkmylegalfees.com can adopt a business model that allows them to bring expensive High Court litigation to assess modest solicitors’ bills in cases of this kind’. He suggested that the legal ombudsman scheme would be a cheaper and more effective method of querying solicitors’ bills in these circumstances.

Checkmylegalfees.com was in a joint venture with Clear Legal which appears to have now ended. Litigation firm Richard Slade and Company bought the rights to checkmylegalfees.com last year, bringing its founder Mark Carlisle on board.

The Gazette has approached Clear Legal for comment. A spokesperson for CAM Legal said: ‘Obviously, we are pleased to see an end to the matter and to have been paid.’

 

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