header-logo header-logo

Lawyers' fees: an ungodly jumble?

16 September 2022 / William Gibson
Issue: 7994 / Categories: Features , Profession , Criminal
printer mail-detail
93939
William Gibson discusses how the current barristers’ strike is attracting attention to legal fees—again

Payne J in 1976, dealing with a costs appeal, said: ‘Paying low fees could work against the public good’. He added: ‘It was important to reach a proper balance between preventing litigation becoming so expensive as to make justice unattainable by many members of the public and the factor of providing that solicitors and counsel should be adequately remunerated’. That paragraph could almost have been a quote from the Woolf or Jackson proposals. A few years later Lord Denning famously called the whole subject of legal costs ‘an ungodly jumble’ and trying to make sense of that jumble has occupied costs professionals for decades. One basic factor since 1976 remains unchanged: solicitors just want a fair and reasonable return for the time and effort put into keeping in place a system of civil litigation of which practitioners are rightly proud. Achieving that aim will require the services of costs professionals for years to come. Although

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Jersey litigation lead appointed to global STEP Council

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

Firm invests in future talent with new training cohort

360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

Investment banking veteran appointed as chairman to drive global growth

NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
back-to-top-scroll