Judges’ stories from the front line are always worth listening to, and none more so than costs judges - for lawyers, at least.
Costs Judge Joseph was a brilliant booking at last week’s Association of Costs Lawyers conference as he spelt out dos and don'ts for practitioners advising those trying to claim every penny.
Joseph recalled how one trainee solicitor had once submitted a costs bill which included four hours researching ‘tribunal etiquette’. Which would have been a tough sell on its own, never mind the fact that the case was being heard in the Divisional Court. The same trainee had produced a bill which cited 340 separate items, including the costs of filing deleted items, which was quickly disallowed.
Obiter’s favourite war story was Joseph explaining how a different costs bill had a claim for five hours of ‘checking witness statements for typographical errors’. None of which cut much mustard with the costs judge, particularly given that the lawyer involved had misspelt ‘typographical’ in the bill.
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