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@ vijaya fernando, "..some lawyers abuse costs.."

Whereas I'd take your point if this were private client work, how exactly do some lawyers abuse costs in Civil / PI litigation or Criminal work when it's all fixed costs? (Even prior to the recent reforms, the Courts set the limits on the amount that could be charged per hour).

Equally as someone who worked in PI, the biggest cost wasters are the Insurance Industry themselves in my opinion stretching out and making it as awkward as possible to get a payout when they haven't got a leg to stand on. Often in my experience, I'd have a case where the Insurance Company had no prospects of success, sometimes even of obtaining any apportionment, but they'd fight liability for 6 months and then fight quantum for another 3-6 months running up thousands of pounds of costs in the process (pre the recent reforms). Yet anyone with any sense, would have just admitted liability straight away upon investigation and paid out the recommended middle amount in the JSG or Kemp rather than argue for 6 months over liability they couldn't win and another 6 months over £200-300, at a cost of many times the amount in dispute. Then they say high car insurance / PI Insurance etc costs are the fault of lawyers!!

As for the LCJ, No-one complains about paying their accountant £300 per hour, because they know they get a valuable service. So why should it be different for lawyers? You wouldn't do your own accounts on the cheap, so why would you expect to do your own law?

I'm afraid in my opinion, the whole bash the lawyer attitude stems from left wing hatred for the profession rather than any sound basis for complaint about what Civil Litigators or Criminal Lawyers actually earn (which generally is the lowest wages and charging rates of any lawyers in the profession).

Equally, it's totally counter productive for the left wing when many of the very people who've gone to University and joined these areas of law, come these days from the working class....

.....total home goal on social mobility.

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