BA (Hons) MA
Costs Draftsman
Marc joined John M Hayes in 2001 having graduated from the University of Wales, Cardiff with a BA (Hons) Degree in English Literature and an MA in English Literature.
Marc has a particular interest in the more arcane and unusual areas of costs including costs in the Court of Protection, costs in respect of the administration of estates and costs with inter-jurisdictional elements. Marc has particular experience in dealing with the costs of planning appeals, having advised local authorities the length and breadth of the country and having successfully argued on detailed assessment that the costs of a Litigant in Person are not recoverable as a matter of law in such appeals.
Marc has many years’ experience in dealing with costs in criminal proceedings (including proceedings in the Military Courts) and is one of a handful of practitioners still practicing in this area. Marc has prepared a number of multi-million pound claims to Central Funds in respect of very complex prosecutions and has prepared re-determination reasons that resulted in his client receiving a further c. £1.3 million. Marc attended as advocate in the case of R v Turnball (mentioned in the reported case of R v Taylor [2013] 2 Costs LR 374) and has also represented a local police force in respect of an application for an award of costs under s.64 of the Magistrates Court Act 1980.
Marc has acted as advocate on a number of multi-day hearings of six-figure sums including successfully arguing that a CFA had been validly assigned where a firm had converted to an LLP during the course of litigation, successfully arguing that costs were disproportionate in what is understood to be this jurisdictions first successful Twitter libel claim, successfully arguing that there was no prohibition in law against the recovery of costs of two firms acting in parallel in complex Trustee proceedings and reducing a claim under the Equality Act 2010 by over 80% on detailed assessment.
Marc frequently acts as an expert witness for the Solicitors Regulation Authority in cases of suspected overcharging and has given evidence in the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on a number of occasions. In addition, Marc has provided expert witness evidence for a local Police force in respect of criminal investigations against former Solicitors.
Marc is a contributing author to Butterworths Personal Injury Litigation Services and has spoken on the subject of costs for the Personal Injury Bar Association. He has written for the South Wales Legal News and Costs Lawyer Magazine.