Practice Direction Amendments

The 11 ^th amendments to the CPR Practice Directions contained amendments to the Practice Direction about costs relating to Parts 43 to 48. PD l.7 to Part 43 was amended to emphasise the use of the model form of bill in the schedule of costs is discretionary not compulsory. PD 2.2(3) was amended to add ‘costs claimed against another party after legal aid was granted’ as an additional part to be distinguished in a legal aid bill. PD 2.4(2) had two paragraphs added drawing attention to a ‘legal executive’ meaning a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives. It continues ‘other clerks who are fee earners of equivalent experience, may be entitled to similar rates. It should be borne in mind that Fellows of the Institute of Legal Executives will have spent approximately six years in practice, and taken both general and specialist examinations. The Fellows have therefore acquired considerable practical and academic experience. Clerks without the relevant experience of legal executives will normally be treated as being the equivalent of trainee solicitors and para-legals.’ PD 2.10 now makes the division of a bill into five columns discretionary and not mandatory; the minimum number of non-routine communications which should be lumped together is increased from 5 to 20 and the provision for travelling and waiting time in PD 2.15(3) is to ‘be allowed at the rate agreed with the client unless this is more than the hourly rate on the assessment’. The provision in PD 4.13 to Part 47 as to the filing of papers in support of the bill and the order in which they are to be arranged has been disapplied to cases in district registries and county courts (by a new PD 6.3(g)). PD 6.5 now makes it clear ‘the legal representative should, if the provisional assessment is to be accepted, then complete the bill’, whilst a new PD 6.9 provides ‘It is the responsibility of the legal representative to complete the bill by entering in the bill the correct figures allowed in respect of each item, recalculating the summary of the bill appropriately and completing the legal aid assessment certificate (Form 15)’. A new paragraph has been inserted after PD 7.4, being 7.5 resulting in the renumbering of the subsequent paragraphs. It reads ‘Where an offer to settle is made it should specify whether or not it is intended to be inclusive of the costs of preparation of the bill, interest and VAT. The offer may include or exclude some or all of these items but the position must be clear on the face of the offer so that the offeree is clear about the terms of the offer when it is being considered. Unless the offer states otherwise, the offer will be treated as being inclusive of all these items. At the end of PD 8.10 relating to Rule 47.24 obtaining the court’s permission to appeal is added ‘As a general rule the request should first be made to the judge who made the decision which is sought to be appealed. Where the same judge is unavailable, or states that he is unable to deal with the request for permission, the request may be made direct to the appellate court. In the directions relating to legal aid costs at prescribed rates paragraph 9.5 (‘costs which are claimed as payable only out of the Legal Aid Fund should be set out in a separate part of parts of the schedule’) is deleted and paragraphs 9.6 and 9.7 promoted. A new paragraph 9.7 reads ‘Where costs have been assessed at prescribed rates it is the responsibility of the legal representative to enter the correct figures allowed in respect of each item and to recalculate the summary of the legal aid schedule referred to in paragraph 9.2 above’. An amendment to PD 2.7 relating to rule 48.10 ‘Assessment Procedure’ makes it clear that the word ‘client’ includes any person entitled to make an application under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.