Costs Round Up #56
Welcome to Costs Round-up: the 5 minute read that enlightens, brightens and informs on the week in legal costs.
This week the headlines were dominated by the APIL 2016 conference which saw Justice Minister, Lord Faulks attend to confirm that there will be “No Retreat on PI reforms”.
The Law Society continues to run its survey on J-codes to learn more about how Solicitors record their time and to discover which members are already using J-codes to time record. Have your say here.
Litigation Futures reports Lord Faulks confirming the government is investigating the extension of fixed recoverable costs across all civil litigation, including how to deal with differences between different types of litigation. This is one to watch.
In case law, Mendes v Hochtief (UK) Construction [2016] EWHC 976 (QB), saw a High Court Judge confirm that the advocacy fee for a fast track trial conducted under the RTA Protocol is still recoverable when the case settled on the morning of the trial. Gordon Exall Barrister explores the key point in his summary here.
There were two interesting articles on legal aid cuts impacting on the use of interpreters in court with MOJ figures confirming that thousands of court cases have been adjourned due to failures in interpreting services and a second article on the surge in DIY Defence we reported on last week helped along by a useful set of tips from Rupert Myers writing in the Guardian entitled “Don’t try to defend yourself in court. But if you have to, here are some crucial tips”.
Breaking news today sees HMCTS chief Natalie Ceeney leaving her job after 16 months. Perhaps all is not well with the Court reform programme after all?
Finally, Company news sees the team at John M Hayes continuing to showcase their wide array of talents. Laura Stafford Smith’s fashion vlog and newsletter is one to watch and we continue to support the running team at Newcastle which saw Michael Fitzpatrick and Andrew “sub 2 hours” Brough completing the Sunderland Half Marathon on Sunday 1 May. Not to be out done, team members at Norwich office have put in for ballot for the London marathon next year – we’ll keep you updated.
Expect sunshine this weekend!
Until next week…
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