Report comment

Please fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state which comment is of concern and why. It will be sent to our moderator for review.

Comment

In the majority of civil cases I do, I thing this proposal will help. I frequently do cases where our costs are £X and the other solicitors costs are £2X or in £3X ...in a recent IP case were our client had most of the burden of the work, so our costs should have been higher, our costs were £x and the counterparty costs were £3.5X.

However there is a crying need for judges
a) to understand costs (which most don't as others have said - a result of most being ex-barristers)
b) for automatic detailed assessment of costs either in the court case by the judge or subsequently (unless costs are agreed), with no costs recovery for costs hearings to encourage settlement; - summary assessment being largely a hurried farse; and
c) judges having a robust attitude to costs AND being prepared to treat costs as a serious matter

Perhaps also, we could have a sensible insurance marketplace for insuring costs of having to enforce rights and also defence costs - covering the amount unrecovered from the other side - with a free choice of solicitor for the party insured within X miles of the registered office and subject to an hourly rate cap
....as the policies out there at the moment for commercial entities are frankly not worth the paper they're written on ,,,or require use of "panel solicitors" who can only meet the insurers imposed hourly market rate by employing poorly trained paralegals

[.....and perhaps a ban on Claims Management Companies that simply double the cost of car accidents]

Your details

Cancel