Cost Cases
Click here for Costs Cases Online our specialist Costs law database.
Click here to read the Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 recommendation.
Costs is an area of increasing importance and rapid change where specialist advice is often essential. Jeremy Morgan QC, who heads our costs team, was one of the first at the Bar to make a niche practice in this area. We have deliberately kept our Costs Team small, so that we can offer a truly specialist service. The other members of the team are Simon Edwards, Robert Marven, Benjamin Williams, Judith Ayling, Caroline Truscott, Vikram Sachdeva, Nicola Greaney, Katharine Scott, Karim Ghaly, Caroline Allen, Victoria Butler-Cole and Peter Mant.
The service we provide:
The Costs Team offers advice and representation at all levels of court and tribunal and on all aspects of costs, eg:
Conditional fees and legal expenses insurance, including drafting
CFAs and CCFAs
Solicitor/client disputes
Community Legal Service funding and contracting
Party and party costs assessments
Costs capping applications
Costs against third parties
We represent a full range of clients including the Lord Chancellor, the Legal Services Commission, trade unions, solicitors from large City firms to sole practitioners, and lay clients from multi-nationals to individuals on income support. We have close links with a number of costs-draftsmen and agencies.
The members of the team:
Jeremy Morgan QC (solicitor 1976, barrister 1989); listed as the leading Costs Silk by Legal 500 2003 and 2004 - "'is very well respected by the judiciary' (2004) and "remains the pre-eminent specialist" (2003); has appeared in many of the leading cases (eg Factortame, Marczynski, Palomo, Wraith - for full list click here); Editor of Butterworths Costs Bulletin; columnist on Costs for Law Society's Gazette; assessor in High Court costs appeals. About 90% of his practice is in Costs.
Simon Edwards has advised and spoken extensively on conditional fee and other costs issues. He has also appeared at the SCCO. He has assisted in the drafting of conditional fee agreements both individual (bespoke) and group (standard terms), including those for 39 Essex St. His extensive experience of litigation in many different fields equips him with an understanding of the varied occasions in which costs are actually incurred, ranging from common law through commercial and property to family. When acting for insolvency practitioners he has advised on the specialist costs considerations that arise in that field.
Robert Marven is a specialist in all aspects of costs law. His practice includes: costs issues arising from high value litigation; challenges to the of conditional fee agreements; collective conditional fee agreements; success fees; legal expenses insurance and ‘after the event’ insurance premiums; fixed costs; costs estimates; costs caps; as well as wasted and non-party costs orders. He has been involved in a range of high profile cases in the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Supreme Court Costs Office and the County Courts. He undertakes both detailed assessments and appellate work. He provides commercial advice on costs and litigation funding issues to insurers, solicitors and claims management companies.
Benjamin Williams is identified as a leading junior in the Legal 500 2005 for his work on costs. He has particular experience in dealing with new forms of funding arrangement, and has appeared in many of the leading cases concerning CFAs and insurance premiums, including Sarwar v Alam, Hollins v Russell and KU v Liverpool City Council. He also advises solicitors generally on professional conduct and compliance issues as part of his broader commercial practice.
Judith Ayling has a fast increasing costs practice. She has experience of dealing with the detailed assessment of costs, and has both advised in writing and appeared at detailed assessment hearings in the County Court and in the SCCO, as well as appearing at appeals from detailed assessment. She has particular expertise in issues arising out of CFAs and CCFAs, including success fees, insurance premiums and the recovery of additional liability where there has been non-compliance with the CPR. She also has experience in professional negligence cases involving costs. She has also lectured regularly on costs matters. She is listed as a leading costs junior in the UK Legal 500.
Caroline Truscott was called to the bar in 1998. She has extensive experience of advisory work and advocacy in the costs field. She has advised on and appeared at interlocutory costs hearings and detailed assessments in the County Court and the Supreme Court Costs Office on behalf of both paying and receiving parties. She has particular experience in contested applications and assessments under the Solicitors Act 1974. Recent cases have involved issues of non-compliance with the CFA regulations, the recoverability of experts' fees where there is no permission to rely upon expert evidence and the extent to which disputed facts such as malingering can be raised at the detailed assessment stage in cases which have settled.
Vikram Sachdeva is recommended as a leading junior in costs by the Legal 500. He acts for both Claimants and Defendants at all levels, and has a busy costs practice. He is a member of the Attorney General’s Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown (C Panel). He has particular expertise in the recovery of success fees and insurance premiums, and has conducted a large number of such cases both at first instance and on appeal.
Nicola Greaney was called to the bar in 1999. She advises on and appears at detailed assessment hearings in the Supreme Court Costs Office and the County Court on behalf of both paying and receiving parties. She is available to give advice and representation in a variety of costs cases. Apart from costs, she practises in personal injury and clinical negligence law and administrative law.
Katharine Scott was called to the bar in 1999. She is regularly instructed by the legal service commission in cases involving a variety of issues. In addition she has represented applicant solicitors at all stages of their disputes with the legal services commission, including appeals to the contract review body and judicial review. Katharine also advises and represents both claimants and defendants on a variety of costs issues, including the enforceability of CFAs and CCFAs, recoverability of success fees and detailed assessments. Costs accounts for about 35% of her practice. The remainder of her work is common law and public law. She is listed as a leading costs junior in the UK Legal 500.
Karim Ghaly was called to the bar in 2001. He advises on and appears at detailed assessment hearings in the Supreme Court Costs Office and the County Court on behalf of both paying and receiving parties.
Victoria Butler-Cole was called to the Bar in 2005 and became a tenant in October 2006. Prior to that she worked in the field of bioethics and public policy. During pupillage she assisted in the case of Garrett v Halton BC and was praised by Brooke LJ for the quality of her bundles! She has received special training in costs from other members of the Costs Team and is available to give advice and representation in the lower value costs cases. Apart from costs she practises in administrative law, personal injury, healthcare law and clinical negligence.
Further information on "Costs Cases Online"
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