Litigation Funding & Costs

The Kings Chambers costs team is made up of genuine specialists, many of whom practise exclusively in the area of costs. The team is a national team which is easily a match for any comparable team in London. Members are regularly praised in the directories. The team has considerable experience of advising solicitors about their businesses, but despite this focus on non-contentious work the team has had more costs-related appearances in the Court of Appeal last year than any other chambers.

The team’s academic standing is impressive. Members of the team have written Civil Costs: Law and Practice (which has been described as “definitive” and “the costs Bible”). The team is responsible for the Costs Brief in the New Law Journal, and they also contribute to the Costs Newsletter, published by LexisNexis. Members are regularly asked to speak at conferences.

The team offers a wide range of experience and services. Save for the most junior members of the team, all members are able to deal with any aspect of civil costs, but they do have preferred areas of practice. 

The following table sets out those preferred areas, and also indicates the number of years of costs experience and whether the member is or is not a qualified costs draftsman.

	Matthew Smith	Dr Mark Friston	Prof Andrew McGee	Paul Hughes	Craig Ralph	Kevin Latham
Began to practice costs (year of call)	2004 (1991)	1999 (1997)	2004 (1998)	2003 (2001)	2002 (2002)	2005†  (2007)
Qualified costs draftsman	Yes (2009)	Yes* (2008)		Yes (2009)
Detailed assessments	++		++	+++	+++	+++
Drafting work (Points of Dispute, Replies, etc)	+	+	+	++	++	+++
Solicitor and client disputes	+++	+++	+	++	+++	++
Remedial steps concerning damaged retainers	+++	+++	+	++	+++
Non-contentious costs	+++	+++	+	+++	++
Costs of commercial disputes		+++	+++	+++	+++
Costs of personal injury disputes	+		+	+++	+++	+++
Group litigation	+++	+++	+	+++	+++
Costs in tribunals	+++	+	+	+	++	+++
Children and costs	+++	++		++	+	++
Business advice and funding	+	+++		+	+
Insurance and costs		+	+++
VAT	+	+++	+	+	+
Security for costs	+	+	+++	+++	+++
Third-party costs orders and wasted costs	+++	+	+++	+++	+++	++
Conduct and misconduct	+++	+++	+++	+++	+++
Fixed costs	+++	+	+++	+++	+++	+++
Criminal costs					+++

* Former ACL council member.

†Some of this experience was before Mr Latham was called to the Bar.

Qualified costs draftsman

Three members of chambers are Fellows of the Association of Costs Lawyers. This means that they have completed a course on the law and practice of costs, and that they have passed a competitive examination. They are the only practising barristers ever to have done this. The course has given them insight into areas of costs which counsel rarely see, such as dealing with applications for public funding, criminal costs, bill drafting, etc. It has also required them to demonstrate in an objective way their competence and expertise.

Kings Chambers supports the ACL and wishes to foster a close relationship between costs counsel and costs draftsmen. Dr Friston was a former ACL Council member.

To view a list of our members who specialise in this area, please click on the drop down menu to the left.