The pilot scheme is due to end on 28th April. However, the Court will continue to accept electronic bills after that date given that the pilot has been a success. At SPH, having adopted the new electronic bill pursuant to the pilot scheme, we have been delighted to see that the whole assessment procedure from filing the bill to obtaining the sealed final costs certificate is typically taking 10 -12 weeks. This is in stark contrast to the 10 – 12 months it can take for paper bills to be processed due to the considerable backlog in the Senior Courts Costs Office. This clearly has had significan ..read more

We would welcome the opportunity of demonstrating our exceptional Legal Aid High-Cost Case plan service to you. We can assist Clients with either traditional paper files or those who are paperless. ​ We can assist as follows: ​Family Cases: We can prepare High-Cost Case Plans under the VHCC CCFS scheme to include both interim and final High-Cost Case Plans, collating the significant amount of supporting documentation required by the LAA, completion of the CCFS contract with the LAA and submission of the same, preparation of costs increase applications upon approval of the High-Cost Case Plan ..read more

Notice to customers regarding Court of Protection bills "Further to the previous update circulated on 31st October 2022, thank you to all our customers for your ongoing support which is greatly appreciated by staff. Please find below the latest update with regard to dates being worked on: The Costs Officers are currently being assigned bills of costs for which supporting papers were received around the beginning of May. (We would like to clarify that there will be some delay between the bill being assigned to the Costs Officer and it being sent out by the Admin Team. Therefore, whilst bills p ..read more

Notice to customers regarding Court of Protection bills Further to the previous update circulated on 25th July 2022, thank you to all our customers for your ongoing support which is greatly appreciated by staff. Please find below the latest update with regard to dates being worked on: The Costs Officers are currently being assigned bills of costs for which supporting papers were received around the middle of February (We would like to clarify that there will be some delay between the bill being assigned to the Costs Officer and it being sent out by the Admin Team. Therefore, whilst bills pre ..read more

The Civil Justice Council has published its final report on guideline hourly rates. The full report can be found here: https://www.judiciary.uk/announcements/civil-justice-council-publishes-final-report-on-guideline-hourly-rates ..read more

We have developed the Portal to make instructing us quicker, easier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly. Our easy-to-use new secure document portal has now gone live and we hope you will find it useful to upload documentation that you need to send to us. The new portal can be found at: https://clientportal.sphcosts.com/register.php You only need to register once (the address and phone number fields are optional) and can thereafter use the facility to upload anything from a simple PDF to a full electronic case management file for costing. If you have any queries or difficulties, please ..read more

GHCR – latest recommendations released The writer has previously reported the most recent case law addressing the considerably outdated GHCR and the steps being taken by the judiciary, whilst recognising that there was no authority for their rulings to represent binding updates to the rates, to redress the balance between the imposition of archaic rates and the ever-increasing cost of litigation. It is therefore with some delight that it can now be reported that, on time, the Civil Justice Council’s working group, chaired by Mr Justice Stewart, has published its Consultation Paper, with the c ..read more

Summary assessment has always been, in the writer’s opinion, somewhat of a “rough and ready” affair and whilst it is generally accepted by all parties to such assessments that the court will adopt a broad-brush approach to the same, it is not often that a receiving party is so aggrieved as to the outcome as to warrant an appeal. Such appeals can also have unintended consequences for the (in this case possibly quite pleased at first instance) paying party, and so it is in the latest judgement handed down by His Honour Judge Hodge QC whilst sitting as a High Court Judge in Manchester. The matte ..read more

First and foremost, all of us at SPH Costing Services hope that you and your families remain well in these unusual times. As we have all seen in the news recently, it would appear that the country not only remains firmly in the grip of the current COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, with many within the legal profession either remaining working from home or returning to home working, the second wave appearing to, if not actually be upon us then not far off. We at SPH Costing Services view the health and well being of our clients and staff as being of paramount importance, whilst recognising the ..read more

Costs Judge Master Whelan today handed down Judgment in the matter of PLK & Others which provides guidance to Costs Officers who assess the majority of Court of Protection Bills. The Judgment states that Hourly Rates claimed that are up to 120% of the published 2010 Guideline Hourly Rates will prima facie be regarded as reasonable. The effect of the Judgment is that hourly rates increase as follows: Bands (A,B,C,D) London 1 £490 £355 £271 £165 London 2 £380 £290 £235 £151 London 3 £275-320 £206-275 £198 £145 National 1 £260 £230 £193 £142 National 2 £241 £212 £175 £133 Paragraph 35 of the ..read more