I have found John M Hayes to be a very efficient, friendly and knowledgeable service and have been very satisfied with their services.
Fieldings Porter Solicitors
Costs budgeting, love it or hate it, it’s here to stay.
Costs management orders requiring litigants to draw up detailed budgets before the first case management conference have been piloted in the mercantile and technology and construction courts and are due to become mandatory for all multi-track litigation: post Jackson reforms in April 2013.
This is a seismic shift in procedure placing the emphasis on costs management from the outset with law firms being required to produce detailed budgets at the outset of a case or face potentially huge losses.
As Iain Stark, Chairman of the Association of Costs Lawyers (ACL) writes:
“Budgeting is going to look something like a train track. On one side of the train track you’ve got the best case scenario, that is, admittance of liability, everybody agrees the experts, they agree the reports, they make a couple of offers, we settle. At the other side of the track the scenario is the other side deny liability, they fight on every single point and go to trial. So you’ve got two scenarios there but the budgeting provides for only one. So which one are you going to put in? If you undervalue the claim and the case takes on a life that you haven’t anticipated in your future budget, will you get paid?”
And yes, it’s as fundamental as that.
As Ian Stark concludes:
“Everybody with an iota of common sense is going to hedge their bets and budget for the worst case scenario of going to trial. If you over budget you could be penalised. Put yourself in the position of a Solicitor as the conducting fee-earner. What are you going to do? Cost the firm money or be criticised for contemplating the worst?”
In a recent ACL survey, 40% of members said they thought solicitors make a mistake by calling costs experts only after things have gone wrong. 50% by thinking they can do it themselves and 83% by failing to keep thorough records.
Experience has shown increasingly that our Solicitor clients seek advice more often during the lifetime of a case: at allocation, listing, at summary assessment (preparing schedules) or detailed assessment. Costs budgeting is simply a further extension to the role of costs draftsman providing a more flexible personal tailored approach.
Want to find out more? We are running a series of road shows on costs budgeting, qualified one way costs shifting and offering a Jackson implementation update.
Our next scheduled stop is London with two free seminars on 14th December at 218 the Strand offering you 1.5 free accredited CPD points.
Contact london@johnmhayes.co.uk for additional information or to reserve your place.
Monday 12th November 2012