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There are 2 root causes of disproportionate costs claims like this

1. Daily chargeable hours targets for fee earners of 8 hours plus which are now the rule rather than the exception. This doesn't just encourage overcharging, it makes it impossible to work as a fee earner unless you are prepared to exaggerate time spent dealing with cases.
2. Weakness on the part of the judiciary in dealing with the massive costs inflation which we have seen over the last 15 years ( and I'm not just talking about ATE and uplifts - it used to be possible to deal with a serious PI claim without incurring costs which exceed damages by a factor of 5 or even more

I handle both defendant and claimant cases and I regularly see reductions in claimant bills by 40-50% by negotiation, even before assessment.

The solution: If a Claimant submits a bill and then subsequently receives less than 2/3 of the final figure claimed, then he gets nothing and has to pay the Defendant's costs. As a claimant I have never, repeat never, seen one of my bills reduced by more than 25% and that was an extreme case. The reason for this is that my firm has attainable chargeable hours targets and does not artificially inflate costs with case management software that invents time if you press F1 often enough.