SCCO masters can bite!

(1) Thomas v Butler (t/a Worthingtons Solicitors) [2009] EWHC 9015; costs lawyer 9 January p2

Master Campbell found that the solicitors had failed to discuss funding options adequately with their client, who was under the mistaken impression that the solicitors were acting under a conditional fee agreement. The client had given clear instructions that he wished the claim to be dealt with by way of a CFA backed by his legal expenses insurance policy. Not only had this not be done but it was compounded by the fee-earners’ failure to contact the legal expenses insurer whose policy the client had previously had the benefit of when with previous solicitors. Relying on CPR r44.4(1) which provides the court can ‘disallow costs which have been unreasonably incurred or are unreasonable in amount’, the master ruled that none of the solicitors’ costs amounting to £20,651 were payable and that the firm had to repay what it had received on the grounds that the costs were unreasonable because of breach of the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct 2007.