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10 February 2023 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 8012 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Costs , CPR
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Regan’s costs crammer (Pt 3)

110017
Could rule changes be on the horizon? Dominic Regan looks ahead to 2023, & considers guideline hourly rates & caps on deductions
  • Update on guideline hourly rates: are they still relevant with so many fee-earners now working at least partly from home?
  • Costs post-Belsner: is reform of the Solicitors Act 1974 on the way?

The Master of the Rolls approved an increase in guideline hourly rates which took effect in October 2021. Master Rowley, at para [44] of R v Barts Health NHS Trust [2022] EWHC B3 (Costs), said: ‘Where the work is as recent as 2019, it seems to me there is no argument that the correct starting point is the 2021 guideline figures.’ He then proceeded to allow even more for all grades of fee earner on account of importance, urgency and complexity. The Master of the Rolls has indicated a further review in just two years’ time. Master Brown in TRX v Southampton Football Club Ltd | [2022] EWHC B7 (Costs) applied

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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