THE LAWYER MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 17TH 2003
Court costs shackled by fee-capping case. By Naomi Rovnick
The courts have given claimant
and defendant lawyers the green light to apply for each other’s litigation
costs to be capped for the first time.
Both sides will also be able to
determine which level of fee-earner can perform certain tasks, such as letter
writing, in order to control the other side’s costs.
In the first case of its kind,
Ledward v Kent & Medway Health Authority which involved 59 claimants alleging
rape by a consultant gynaecologist, the judge in the costs hearing Master Hurst
ordered claimant’ costs to be capped at £395,000.00 and the defendant’s at
£460,000.00
Master Hurst said the claimants’
law firm, Jane Loveday, had produced an analysis of its work that contained
gross overestimates of the amount of work that still had to be done on the
case.
According to a costs expert of Legal Budgets, the case will have a knock-on effect on what clients
are charged in litigation. “This is the beginning of the end of solicitors
over-charging”.
“Now the courts can control
costs, and this will have massive ramifications for what solicitors can charge
their clients”.
