From Our Cardiff office meet Marc Banyard, Costs Laywer.
Marc is both Costs Lawyer and experienced advocate and appears regularly at the SCCO in London. He accepts instructions from across the UK. Marc is acknowledged as an expert in planning appeals and is a trusted partner to Local Authorities across the UK. In addition, Marc has a particular interest working with Litigants in Person and Marc's Costs Lawyer status means that he is able to provide a full package of services traditionally associated with Solicitor and Barrister as an economic and cost-effective alternative.
As Marc says:
"By the time it comes to assessment of costs, the majority of litigants are understandably jaundiced and disillusioned with the legal system. Many have spent a lot of money to get where they are and, however deep their pockets, are not greatly enamored with the prospect of spending even more dealing with the ancillary issue of costs (particularly as I often represent litigants who are faced with having to pay their opponents costs as well). Costs Lawyer status means that I can assume full conduct of the litigation rather than paying two people to do the job of one."
In recent years, Marc has diversified his caseload away from purely litigation costs and now spends a great deal of his time dealing with costs issues arising from Planning Appeals.
Marc comments:
"I currently receive instructions from a number of Local Authorities across the country in respect of costs incurred in appeals under s 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. It is a fascinating area of costs as, quite often, Appellants have not instructed Solicitors and the costs claims presented frequently include some quite unusual elements which the Appellant is often convinced (quite mistakenly) they can recover. Further more, a lot of Appellants are Litigants in Person and there are interesting legal issues as to the position of a litigant in person as pertains to costs and matters before the inspectorate."
Marc also assist Local Authorities with costs arising from Judicial Review of local government decisions and receives instructions from other public bodies including local police authorities where he assists on claims for wrongful arrest and wrongful imprisonment where costs can often be entirely disproportionate to the damages. He is frequently instructed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to provide expert evidence and has attended at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on a number of occasion to give evidence. Marc also has a special interest in "private client" non- contentious matter primarily costs incurred in estate administration and those charged by Solicitor Attorneys.
Marc has the benefit of working day to day on those cases where the majority of Costs Lawyers and Costs Draftsmen do not practise with any great regularity. As he says:
"Claims for costs in these cases really can be quite strikingly different to those arising from litigation in courts and even a seasoned costs professional is likely to find the same somewhat unchartered territory at first. Having dealt with an appreciable number of such claims, the client can be safe in the knowledge that I am not learning as I go along with their case."
Marc is one of a number of experienced Costs Lawyers and Costs Draftsmen working within niche specialist areas at John M Hayes. If you would like to discuss the contents of this article further , please contact Marc direct on 02920 394043 or marc.banyard@johnmhayes.co.uk