Drafting work (Points of Dispute, Replies, etc)

All members of the costs team carry out drafting work; the only documents we are unable draft are Bills of Costs and Schedules of Costs. Unlike many costs counsel, all members of the costs team have gone through (or are going through) an ‘apprenticeship’ of seeing hundreds of Bills of Costs and attending dozens of detailed assessments. As such, they are able to deal with anything that is thrown at them.

It is no always necessary to prepare papers specially for counsel; in particular, if the issue is one of quantum, it is usually cost effective just to send counsel the entire file. If in doubt, please discuss this with us before preparing instructions.

The following are examples of the type of work that the cost team does:

Advices on quantum: This is where most assessments are won or lost. Where the dispute is about quantum, by far the most important task is to formulate a sensible view as to the value of the costs, and to make an offer accordingly. The costs team aims to provide its clients with “90 percent costs protection”, which means that an offer is made which will protect against a non-consensual adverse costs order in 90 percent of cases.  The costs team are highly experienced at this, and where appropriate, will even employ statistical tools to give the right advice.

Points of Dispute or Replies where there are points of law: Members of the costs team are often instructed to draft arguments on points of law (either directly into the Points or Replies, or by way of a Skeleton Argument); it is often also sensible also to review the rest of the arguments to ensure that they are consistent.

Points of Dispute or Replies relating to large Bills of Costs: Where the Bill of Costs is large, counsel is often asked to draft arguments concerning the indemnity principle, proportionality, hourly rates, success fee and other larger issues. It is usually best to work in conjunction with a costs draftsmen in these circumstances.

Grounds of Appeal: It is almost always best to ask counsel to draft Grounds of Appeal at an early stage rather than to ask him to review ones drafted in-house at a later stage. It is usually economically sensible to instruct counsel to draft a Skeleton Argument at the same time. The Grounds of Appeal will usually be accompanied by a short note explaining what should be included in the Appeal Bundle.

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