Busy year for SCCO
The Senior Court Costs Office saw its workload jump by nearly a quarter last year, new figures from the Ministry of Justice have revealed.
It assessed 15,230 bills in 2014, up 23% on the year before and more than in any year since 2004, the first year for which there appear to be statistics.
The increase in the last year, and indeed the last decade, is due to the assessment of receivers’ costs in the Court of Protection. The SCCO dealt with 3,247 such assessments in 2004, rising to a then record 5,598 in 2013, before leaping to 7,152 last year.
The number of ‘between the parties’ assessments dealt with last year – 2,895 – was up 28% on 2013 and the highest since 2005.
Last year also saw a reversal of the downward trend in civil legal aid assessments. There were 6,400 in 2004 and this had fallen to 4,001 by 2013, but the number rose to 4,614 in 2014.
There were also 569 appeals against the determination of costs in the Crown Court in 2014.
Freeman to join SB
Laura Freeman (pictured) has joined Manchester-based SB Costs – a generalist costs firm which specialises in legal aid work – as a director. Ms Freeman, who is in her final year as a Trainee Costs Lawyer, specialises in very high cost legal aid cases.
She joins from Lawlords, having previously been the high cost case supervisor at John M Hayes.
Sam Bagnall, managing director of SB Costs, said: “Having Laura here will allow us to continue to service our existing clients while facilitating our expansion plans.”
As well as acting for solicitors, SB also offers a ‘white labelling’ legal aid costs service to a number of other Costs Lawyers.
Clarion and Wrigleys celebrate 300th case
Leeds law firm Clarion has been busy publicising its costs team, marking the 300th case it has completed for fellow Yorkshire firm Wrigleys. Clarion has recovered approximately £5m in fees over the last four years, mainly on Court of Protection cases.
Costs Lawyer Andrew McAulay, the partner at Clarion who leads the six-strong costs team, said: “Over the last six years, our costs and litigation funding work for other law firms has become one of Clarion’s fastest expanding service areas and we now work on behalf of more than 100 law firms throughout the UK.”