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

If there was an offence of "Throwing a costs draftsmen under a bus" we might have seen some criminal proceedings arising from this case.

Let's assume that they had drafted the Bill in-house. Ok it obviously won't be as good as a decent external firm might draft it but that's the only difference. She wouldn't (no matter how deserving an in-house costs team might be) seek to throw them under the said bus.

Without wanting to pre-empt the Supreme Court Appeal :

The solicitor in this case should accept that it's her firm who -

(a) decided to outsource
(b) (presumably) undertook some due diligence before outsourcing to the right/best firm for them
(c) were obliged to check the Bill before certifying it as accurate
(d) claimed a fee for properly checking the Bill

Most external drafting firms, if they are decent, fair minded and value their instructions, ought not throw their instructing solicitors under buses either.

Most commercially minded firms will assess their liability position and admit mistakes when necessary, without delay and promptly then deal with the issue of compensation.

Moral of the story : Outsource but do so carefully because when your in-house team make mistakes, you can't even try the excuses which were unsuccessfully advanced in this case.

Your details

Cancel