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Costs control

04 July 2025 / Kris Kilsby
Issue: 8123 / Categories: Features , Profession , Costs
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Kris Kilsby explains how to avoid third-party challenges under the Solicitors Act
  • The Court of Appeal’s decision in Kenig v Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP paved the way for third parties to challenge solicitors’ bills of costs.
  • The challenge for executors and probate solicitors will be how to protect the costs in those bills, or avoid beneficiaries making such applications in the first place.
  • Solicitors need to produce clear and accurate estimates, erring on the side of caution.

The decision in Kenig v Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP [2024] EWCA Civ 15, [2024] All ER (D) 72 (Jan) opened the door for third parties to have solicitors’ bills of costs assessed, and that such an assessment would have some teeth beyond what had been assumed before.

With the door firmly opened, it appears that many beneficiaries, particularly residuary beneficiaries, are now aware that their right to an assessment under the Solicitors Act 1974 is more likely to result in the bill being reduced upon assessment. For the beneficiaries, it will

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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
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