Andrew's News

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 50th Update of the Civil Procedure Rules saw new rules come into force on 1st October 2009 regarding ATE policies and the information required to be given to opponents.

This amendment to Section 19.4 of the Practice Direction Supplementing Parts 43 to 48 of the Civil Procedure Rules relates to further information that must be given to opponents regarding ATE policies.

The Advisory Committee on Civil Costs has now released recommended guideline Court rates for 2009 which can be found below. If you intend to make use of these higher rates we would advise that you write to clients as soon as possible to inform them of the changes and therefore avoid being unable to claim them during costs negotiation. This will be of particular relevance to Solicitors in the old National 3 areas as these rates have been raised significantly and are now at the same level as National 2 areas.

Paramount's October newsletter is now available.

Our quarterly newsletter gives you the latest costings news from Paramount and beyond, as well as providing our own exclusive interpretation of the latest Case Law relating to the Legal Costs.

To receive our newsletter please subscribe via the box on our front page. Alternatively contact us via our website, or speak to our General Manager, Mr Martin Walsh on 01768 213072.

Paramount Legal Costs have entered into an agreement with leading ATE Insurance provider, Elite Insurance Company Ltd meaning we are now able to offer clients insurance policies covering personal injury, clinical negligence, insolvency and bankruptcy, commercial and contractual as well as other specialist areas.

Elite Insurance offer clients total peace of mind and a service that is tailored to their own specific requirements and needs. They also offer competitive premiums, deferred payment terms as well as guarantees of premium recovery.

Following the large amount of positive feedback from our recent email newsletter*, Paramount Legal Costs are pleased to announce the introduction of a new Case Law section to our website.

This new section will be used to summarise selected Case Law pertaining to Legal Costs that may prove to be a useful aid to negotiation. The section will be updated on an ongoing basis and we strongly recommend that you bookmark the new page in order to keep abreast of our interpretation of judgements.

Following recommendations by clients who are members of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) we have recently been accredited by APIL as 1st Tier Costs Experts. We are proud to have achieved this status during our first year in business and we aim to maintain our position as top tier legal costs experts for many years to come.

Due to a high number of requests from both current clients & new firms, the company’s expansion continues and we have now opened a new costs department specialising in family & care work. We have also employed dedicated and experienced law costs draftsmen to work in the new department to ensure that your family & care files are in expert hands.

Once again, Paramount Legal Costs have been accredited by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers as Experts. We are one of the few Law Costs Draftsmen in England & Wales to be named an APIL Expert and are delighted to retain this status for 2008.

The SCCO has now published guideline Court rates for 2008 as follows:

© Paramount Legal Costs 2008