News

Mar 31 2010

2010 Guideline Charging Rates

The Master of the Rolls has now considered the recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Costs further, and also additional material put to him by the Committee.

On the basis of the evidence available to him, the Master of the Rolls has decided to accept the Committee’s recommendation that the 2009 Guideline Hourly Rates should be increased (in line with inflation) by 1.7% for 2010. The intention is that this should take effect from 1st April 2010.

The revised rates can be seen in the attached document.

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Mar 16 2010

Legal aid lawyers pay the price of LSC's mismanagement

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has notified the Law Society that it will be delaying payments to solicitors due in March until the start of the next financial year in April. This is due to the 'cash position' in which the LSC finds itself due to obligations demanded of it by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). We have promptly:

• written to the main clearing banks alerting them to the problems that legal aid firms may face as a result of this

• written to the MoJ requesting that the payments are made on time

Mark Stobbs, Law Society director of policy, says:

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Feb 24 2010

Guideline Hourly Rates for 2010

The Master of the Rolls is presently considering the Advisory Committee on Civil Costs' recommendation to uprate the interim Guideline Hourly Rates for 2010 whilst they come to a final conclusion on the outstanding issues identified in the paper 'The Derivation of New Guideline Hourly Rates'. He has asked the Committee to provide additional information explaining their recommendation. In the meantime the interim Guideline Hourly Rates for 2009 continue to apply for work done since 1 January 2010.

Feb 24 2010

Legal Ombudsman chooses Baskerville House in central Birmingham as home

For the full story, please see the attached document.

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Feb 22 2010

LSB confirms October 2011 as start date for Alternative Business Structures

Please see the attached document for further details.

Jan 29 2010

Obituary

Fred Horne, the former Chief Taxing Master of the Supreme Court and Honorary Life Vice-President of the ALCD sadly passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday night, two months before his 93rd birthday.

He began his legal career in 1938, when he became the youngest qualified solicitor in the country. His professional career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War Two the following year and during the war, he flew Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft, serving in Britain and as a training officer in Canada.

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Jan 20 2010

Controlling Costs in Defamation Proceedings: Reducing Conditional Fee Agreement Success Fees

A consultation paper in respect of the above was published on 19 January by the Ministry of Justice. Further details here:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/costs-defamation-proceedings-con...

Jan 14 2010

Costs Litigation Costs Review - Final Report

The much anticipated Final Report has now been published. A direct download link is provided below. Further information is available here: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/about_judiciary/cost-review/reports.htm

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Dec 23 2009

Guideline rates

The Master of the Rolls has decided to wait until after publication of Lord Justice Jackson's final report of his review of civil litigation costs before deciding whether to make any change to the Guideline Hourly Rates (for solicitors and other legal professionals). A note to this effect has gone on the judicial website, and this is the link to the relevant page:

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications_media/general/guideline-hrly-ra...

Dec 14 2009

Solicitors Regulation Authority Consultation

Moving toward a fairer fee policy – detailed proposals

The SRA has published detailed proposals for a new structure for paying for the regulation of solicitors.

A new consultation paper sets out their preferred model for sharing the costs of regulation, following responses to an initial paper published by the SRA and the Law Society in June, and gives examples of how the new structure might work for different sizes of firms.

The SRA and the Law Society believe that the current system, in which costs are allocated through the practising certificate fee, leads to anomalies and unfairness — with firms of similar size, turnover, and types of practice paying widely varying fees.

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