Kate Oliver explains why using an external costs draftsman can make a difference to your cash flow and recovery
One of my first “outsourcing” experiences some 20 years ago as a fledgling law costs draftsman was a trip out of my office to the offices of a law firm in Leeds. Placing my briefcase, notepad and calculator carefully on the front seat of my car, I drove confidently into the city centre, swooped round the corner of the large office block, followed a large Mercedes Benz down into the basement car park whereupon the garage door closed firmly behind me and I found myself locked in darkness for the next two hours. I didn’t hold this against them and even today I still work for that law firm. It’s the strength of the relationships we develop with our clients that has been the key to our success over the years.
Best of both worlds
Outsourcing does not just involve an organisation like ours collecting your file of papers from your office and returning them with the job done. It can also include working 'in-house' for a firm – a service which is becoming increasingly popular. This is a great way to cement the working relationship between solicitor and costs draftsman and has significant added benefits.
As a solicitor you have access on site to the costs draftsman’s knowledge and experience of costs drafting law, administration and procedure. As a costs draftsman you have on site access to those fundamental documents that can often be missing from the solicitor’s file (time ledgers, disbursement vouchers, pleadings files, correspondence files). It also provides a rare but welcome opportunity to talk to the instructing solicitor face to face about the case and about specific issues of importance that he or she would wish to be brought out in the Bill of Costs.
Adding to the attraction is the fact that a costs draftsman, whether employed internally or externally, is a fee-earner. The unequivocal judgment of Lord Justice May in Crane v Canons Leisure Centre [2007] EWCA Civ 1352 is that work done in preparing a Bill of Costs is “solicitors' work” for which solicitors are entitled to make a direct charge. The success fee (if applicable) is recoverable and paid to the solicitor and not the costs draftsman.
Every penny counts
The benefits of outsourcing your work include the fact that you only pay the costs draftsman for work done – there is no holiday pay, sick pay and no national insurance contribution.
In addition, the cost of employing costs draftsmen of sufficient calibre and keeping them updated can also be prohibitive for smaller firms, particularly when we consider the raft of changes passing through under the guidance of Lord Justice Jackson, for example.
It is our job to keep abreast of developments within costs law; a knowledge which we can pass onto our client firms through an active in-house training programme. Increasingly these days we are being asked by our clients to advise them on ways in which they can improve their cashflow and maximise costs. In an era where firms are under pressure financially we know that every penny counts.
Within a large specialist costs drafting practice, the costs draftsman has the benefit of working alongside experienced colleagues of graduate calibre with the benefit of ongoing broad experience in managing caseloads and training and support. The benefits of using an external costs draftsman are immediately obvious for small practices with little capacity to entertain detailed costs arguments and negotiation. However, even law firms who have their own in-house teams of costs draftsmen call on external assistance, particularly at busy times or where costs arguments become complex and a second opinion is sought. In essence, outsourcing can prevent solicitors from failing to meet turnaround times and tight deadlines at peak times during the financial year.
Proficient at hot desking (and often adept at blending in on the tea round) your external costs draftsman will be a cost-effective way to make a difference to your cashflow and recovery.
To find out more about how law costs draftsman can make a difference to your firm, contact The John M Hayes Partnership Ltd on 0870 300 3780