Costs Lawyers

Our Costs Lawyers at Scott Rees & Co can provide an excellent and complete Legal Costs service to both Claimants and Defendants. Our legal costs drafting, legal costs management and consultancy services cover all aspects of dispute resolution.

Our knowledge and versatility throughout the whole process, combined with our strong contact with customers allows us to provide an excellent and comprehensive costs service. Such services include pre-litigation costs negotiation, drafting bills of costs, costs budgeting and estimates, advocacy, high cost case plans, insolvency bills and more.

Why not drop us an email to find out how we can help you with your legal costs needs?

  • Bills of Costs
  • Points of Dispute and Replies
  • Costs Negotiations

Legal Costs Drafting

Our Costs Lawyers are versatile and can provide a range of Cost Drafting services including Bill of Costs for Detailed Assessments, a Budget Estimate for Precedent H, a Budget Discussion Report for Precedent R, Points of Dispute and Replies, schedule for Costs hearing and seminars, and more.

With our background in litigation, we understand your demands and can tailor our service to meet your needs for road traffic accidents, employers’ liability, public liability, clinical negligence, catastrophic injury and other claims.

Legal Costs Budgeting

Costs Budgeting plays an important role in almost every multi-track litigation. We therefore place great emphasis into meticulously preparing a Costs Budget that can either be agreed or approved by the Court with as little inconvenience to you as possible.

We promise to work very closely with you to ensure that the Costs Budget is accurate and mirrors the work that you do. We are highly experienced in this area and can also advise on the opponent’s budget. We can then attend CCMCs on your behalf in either the High Court or County Courts.

How much do we charge?

We believe in price transparency and have a range of fixed fees to cover the extensive list of legal services that we have to offer. We also understand there are times when your work does not fit into our standard fixed fee model. As we are flexible with how we work, we have no problems with tailoring the fixed fees to suit your particular needs.

For more information on our costs and more, why not contact us and discuss it in person? Peter Bland is our Head of Costs and a member of the Association of Costs Lawyers. You can find their details further below.

Litigation – Fixed fees

You can find information about fixed fees for litigation here.

Case Study: Beardmore v Lancashire County Council

Background

This was a case where this firm successfully pursued a public liability claim against the Council on the Claimant’s behalf, following a tripping accident. Liability was not admitted within the MOJ Portal process and so the claim fell out of the portal and into the fixed recoverable costs regime set out in Rule 45.29 of the Civil Procedure Rules. The matter later settled by way of a Part 36 offer and acceptance. The question on assessment of costs was whether this firm should be entitled to recover the agency fees for the obtaining of medical records as a disbursement in EL/PL claims. Peter Bland, our in-house Costs Lawyer, appeared at first instance and Paul Hughes of Counsel appeared on appeal before a Circuit Judge in Liverpool.

Outcome

His Honour Judge Graham Wood QC allowed the claimant to recover medical agency fees incurred in obtaining medical records in an EL/PL Portal claim despite the fact there is no express allowance for such a fee in the CPR.

Case Study: Cookson v Manchester City Council

Background

This was another case where this firm successfully pursued a public liability claim against the Council on the Claimant’s behalf, following a tripping accident. Liability was again not admitted within the MOJ Portal process and so the claim fell out of the portal and into the fixed regime set out in Rule 45.29 of the Civil Procedure Rules. The matter later settled by way of a Part 36 offer and acceptance. The question on the assessment of costs was whether the Claimant had issued prematurely and whether the Solicitors should be restricted to the low pre-issue fixed costs set out in the CPR. Peter Bland, our in-house Costs Lawyer, appeared at first instance and Paul Hughes of Counsel appeared on appeal before a Circuit Judge in Manchester.

Outcome

His Honour Judge Main QC found there was no discretion to award Portal costs where there had been acceptance of a Part 36 offer, as CPR 36.20 provided for costs up to the date of acceptance and the words “is entitled to” is a mandatory requirement and does not connote a discretion to the Court on the issue of costs. Note: This case can be distinguished from Williams V Secretary of State, as whilst proceedings were issued, judgment was not entered.

Contact us

Peter Bland - Head of Costs

Our Legal Costs department is headed by Costs Lawyer, Peter Bland (pictured), who has more than 18 years experience in the specialist field of Legal Costs. Peter is an Associate at Scott Rees & Co, as well as a member of the Association of Costs Lawyers and a Fellow member of Chartered Legal Executives.

If you are interested to know more about what we do, or how much we charge, or how our service can benefit you, then please do not hesitate to contact Peter Bland for an initial discussion or to arrange a meeting. You can contact Peter Bland using the details below:

Tel: 01695 712 253

Email: peter.bland@scottrees.co.uk

Awards, Accreditations & Associations

Scott Rees & Co has an outstanding record for providing excellent client care and customer experiences. Here are some awards and accreditations to show that we meet the high standards of the industry.

You can read more about our awards and accreditations here.

Committed to you every step of the way

Scott Rees & Co are one of the best rated law firms on Trustpilot in the UK.
We value customer feedback and are always striving to improve our service levels.

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Very professional

Very professional deal with your case quickly highly recommended to Family and friends

Todor Stoykov

Very efficient and friendly service

Scott Rees and Co have helped with the proceedings of an accident. Very efficient and friendly service

Aiden

Kept me informed at all times

Kepted me informed at all times during the whole claim process

Robin Welch

Excellent service

Excellent service, very understanding and helpful would recommend without hesitation

Colin

I would recommend them

Thank you to Scott Rees & co for all their help in settling my case, I would recommend them in future

Clo Dakin