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A class act

31 January 2014 / Murray Heining
Issue: 7592 / Categories: Features , Training & education , Profession
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Murray Heining provides an overview of the new qualification for costs lawyers

The changing face of civil litigation is having a corresponding effect on the role of costs lawyers.

Our position, which has already been enhanced in recent years by becoming a properly regulated profession standing side-by-side with solicitors, barristers and others, has arguably become more important with the new focus on prospective budgeting by parties to litigation, rather than after-the-event assessments.

Getting it right

This means solicitors will need to get it right from the start of their case, as judges have warned that it will usually be extremely difficult to persuade them to revise a budget that contains mistakes.

Speaking at the Association of Costs Lawyers’ (ACL) annual conference last year, Mr Justice Ramsey—the judge in charge of Jackson implementation—said he saw us playing a key role in future. He said: “The expertise of people in this room is to say, ‘We’ve seen what happens at the end of litigation and now we’re going to apply that to the beginning

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

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