Counting the costs

When I first started working in costs, a typical “costs draftsman” led a relatively solitary existence. We were only ever involved at the end of the case to draft a bill which was usually legal aid. Detailed assessments were few and far between so the office was a quiet place to be with the hum of the traffic outside only interrupted by some analogue dictation.

Jump forward a few years to the present day and office life has changed considerably. Aside from the leaps in technology from analogue dictation to all-singing, all-dancing cloud-based systems, the modern costs lawyer’s office is a hive of activity. The increase in inter-parties work which resulted from the Woolf Reforms has meant far more trips to court on detailed assessments and interlocutory applications within costs proceedings.

Costs lawyers are still viewed by some as still being part of the back-end litigation support function but, post-Jackson, we