Bailey-Vella: Eagerly awaiting CJC report
The Law Society is to seek to intervene in the Mazur appeal amid specialist lawyers’ prediction that more costs disputes are on the way following the High Court decision.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has already confirmed that it will again apply to intervene in Mazur, and at last week’s meeting of the Law Society council, chief executive Ian Jeffery told members that it had too – but discussion on it was reserved for the private part of the meeting.
Both were invited to intervene before Mr Justice Sheldon but CILEX, which has been granted permission by the Court of Appeal to bring the appeal, was not.
The Mazur ruling has highlighted the importance of only authorised persons conducting litigation and a survey by the Association of Costs Lawyers (ACL) three-quarters of respondents said it would increase demand for its members, who are authorised, instead of costs draftspeople.
Mazur is already being used to challenge solicitors’ bills that do not show evidence of supervision, and 71% of the Costs Lawyers surveyed expected to see more of these challenges.
And even though Mazur does not deal directly with rights of audience, there are also signs of judges starting to check the qualifications of those appearing before them – 43% of respondents expected this to start becoming a more regular occurrence.
The ACL is working towards an application for a Royal Charter – which would provide legal protection for the professional title – and two-thirds of members thought this had become more important since Mazur.
There were 72 responses, around a sixth of the ACL’s membership.
On other issues, costs lawyers were asked what recommendations would like to see in the forthcoming Civil Justice Council review of the costs provisions in the Solicitors Act 1974.
Top of the wish-list was doing away with the different categorisations of bills, followed closely by changes to how solicitor-client bills were assessed, such as by having alternative routes to assessment for smaller bills.
There was also strong support for additional consumer protection, like telling the client the consequences of delivering a statute bill and/or of their right to an assessment.
Just over a third (37%) of costs lawyers said they/their firm were using artificial intelligence (AI), with a further 34% currently investigating it.
Research and summarising documents were the main uses at this stage, with only five respondents saying they used it help draft bills and just one to help draft pleadings.
“The general feeling was that it saved some time but needed checking thoroughly,” the association reported.
There was no sign of solicitors getting much better with budgeting: hardly any costs lawyers said solicitors always stuck to their budgets, while 60% said they sometimes went over and 25% that they always went over.
The ACL said these figures have not changed significantly over the several years it has asked this question. A quarter of respondents had seen an increase in applications to vary budgets.
Just under half of costs lawyers said their firms/departments had grown in the last year – most by more than 10% – with only 16% saying they had shrunk.
Most members had not yet experienced the new fixed costs determination process, which deals with disputes about the fixed costs regime that was extended in October 2023, but those who had generally considered the £500 fixed fee for the process itself insufficient to do the job properly.
ACL chair David Bailey-Vella commented: “Costs is an unusual area of practice in that unqualified, unauthorised people have been doing much the same work as costs lawyers.
“However, the Mazur ruling has shown that it is not that simple and highlighted the importance of the independent rights that costs lawyers earn through their study and qualification. The record numbers applying to sit the Costs Lawyer Professional Qualification reflect this.
“We are eagerly awaiting the Civil Justice Council report because modernising the law will be of great assistance to everyone involved and is long overdue – arid arguments over the nature of a bill help nobody.
“The findings also show a profession in rude health and starting to get to grips with AI. Like in every part of the legal profession, AI holds great promise initially in handling more straightforward tasks and also offers costs lawyers the chance to focus on the complex work and advice that they are trained for.”
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