On 1 May Litigation Costs Services [1], the first costs drafting firm to be a Legal Futures Associate, celebrated its tenth anniversary with a reception held at the RAF Club in Piccadilly.
The guest list included various people connected with the firm over the years, as well as a number of well-known costs specialists including leading counsel and Master Andrew Gordon-Saker from the Senior Courts Costs Office.
Litigation Costs Services has evolved from the established niche costs firm of Group Litigation Costs Services (GLCS), which was launched on 1 May 2002 by Terry Wisdom, a founding member of the Association of Law Costs Draftsmen (now Association of Costs Lawyers) and Sue Nash, a costs draftsman/lawyer well known for her group litigation expertise.
The company’s re-branding as Litigation Costs Services reflects the firm’s expansion over the last few years into all areas of law costs drafting and consultancy.
As for the future, the firm is still growing and sees huge opportunities for costs professionals in the post-Jackson world. We are determined to keep abreast of (if not one step ahead of) the changes to the legal costs landscape, many of which are due to take effect from April 2013.
As part of this process we are developing costs software that will be fully ‘Jackson compliant’, enabling the production of costs budgets, costs schedules and bills of costs as outlined by Lord Justice Jackson in paragraphs 5.3-5.8 of chapter 45 of his final report. Extended services for litigants in person (now to be known as self-represented litigants) – including alternative dispute resolution – are also being looked at as are collaborations with other legal professionals.
We are always interested in talking to other forward thinking people and organisations – contact Sue Nash at sue@litigation-costs.co.uk [2]