The Civil Justice Council 'holistic' costs consultation is now open, with interested parties given a wide-ranging brief for what subjects to talk about.

Responses can cover anything from costs budgeting to the cost of digitised legal services, debating issues such as fixed recoverable costs and guideline hourly rates. Not only is the scope so wide, but there is a relatively generous 12 weeks in which to respond.

But it is possible the council may regret offering so much leeway. While there are no limits on the volume of material that respondents may provide, the CJC has sensibly added a condition for the benefit of lawyers and academics who want to give chapter and verse. The one condition, underlined in the consultation, is that any response of more than 20 pages of text must be accompanied by an executive summary of no more than two pages. Without such a summary, we presume, epic submissions will be put in the trash.

The CJC also suggests people focus ‘only on one or two topics in respect of which they have particular expertise’. (Roughly translated as: please don’t burden us with your half-baked theories on costs issues that you barely understand’.)

Even with these safeguards, Obiter fears that the holistic exercise could become unwieldy. Good luck to anyone who has to read all those responses.

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