Costs

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Costs

• By David KnappBarlow Lyde Gilbert

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• Planes
• Cars
• Consumer Goods
• Never had it so good

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nor have Lawyers

• Number of Solicitors on the Roll
• 1976 - 31,250
• 2005 - 96,757
• Plus Paralegals, Trainees, Litigation Support
  Lawyers and part and fully qualified Legal
  Executives

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especially with costs

• London Band Guideline Rates
• Grade/Hour
• A B C D
• City of London 359.00 259.00 198.00 122.00
• Central London 276.00 210.00 171.00 110.00
• Outer London(Gravesend, Uxbridge,
  Dartford) 198.00- 149.00- 144.00 105.00 232.00
  198.00
• GRADE A - 8 Years plus qualified Solicitor (aged
  32 ?)
• GRADE B - 4 Years plus qualified Solicitor or
  Legal Executive
• GRADE C - Anyone not a Trainee or Paralegal

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Base rates i.e. before uplift for Conditional Fee
Agreement (CFA)

• UPLIFT
• Tripper 50
• Employers Liability 70
• Also Ku -v- Liverpool City CouncilLiability
  conceded but uplift was not reduced - 50
  throughout currency of claim, including
  assessment of costs

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• Substantial Tripper issued out of Central London
  County Court.
• Modest tripper issued out of Central London
  County Court.
• Grade A Fee Earner 276.00 50 138.00
  414.00 / Hour
• Grade C Fee Earner 171.00 50 85.00
  256.00 / Hour

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• NB No Defendant access to Claimant's files
  resulting in (a) Excessive time
  recording? (b) Failure to check BTE
  Insurance? (c) Incorrect risk assessment on
  mark up - future successful EL claims will
  have mark up of 27.5

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• Many problems caused by CPR (a) Pre-action
  protocol used by too many Claimant Lawyers as a
  fund raising exercise for PADs.(b) Increased
  number of Case Management Conferences(c) Duties
  on experts greater and more expensive - joint
  statements, questions of experts, nominations

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• Compare and ContrastLegal Services Commission
  Rate- Civil cases where unsuccessful -
  75.00 / Hour- Criminal cases often as low
  as 100.00 / Day

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• Solutions(a) Revert back to LSC public funding
  and their rates - costs to Treasury for civil
  claims circa 50 million ?(b) Civil Justice
  Council to reduce hourly rates for Lawyers
  (turkeys and Christmas)?(c) Something more
  novel ???