The report from the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), The Management of Civil Cases (see [2005] Gazette, 1 December, 1), states that one of the ways in which practitioners express 'a more commercial attitude' to litigation costs is by producing 'highly detailed bills, often professionally drawn, that capture more time spent on the case. Thus, the so-called cost industry meets the demand that no costs should be paid unless they are evidenced, by ensuring that no activity is lost, and the result is legal cost inflation'.

The DCA's consultation paper on civil and family court fee increases permits no challenge to the proposition that 'court fees are set in line with the general principles of government fee policy [which] require that fees should reflect a financial objective agreed by ministers, which should not exceed the total cost of providing the service'.


No doubt there is a good reason why aiming for full costs recovery is apparently a bad thing if done by solicitors, but a good thing if done by the government. But as a mere artisan in the 'cost industry', I have not been able to work out what it is.


Peter Burdge, Maritza Legal Services, Clevedon, Somerset