Solicitors

This section deals with the rates that are normally allowed for solicitors' profit costs on an inter partes summary assessment.  This applies to all cases/hearings that last less than a day where the Court is asked to assess how much one party should pay to the other party's legal costs.

The person dealing with the case does not necessarily have to be qualified as a solicitor and the guidelines set out various rates for grades based around the experience of the person dealing with the matter.  Surprisingly for such a clear set of definitions there are still regular cases of people claiming that they are a higher grade than they actually are.  Part of the difficulty is that any costs schedule produced requires the solicitors to confirm that they have not charged more than their client is liable to pay and not that the contents of the schedule are accurate in all respects.

You should identify the relevant grade of fee earner dealing with the case, the relevant Court and then check the rates for the appropriate date.  Where you are dealing with costs before 2003 you should use the second table as the grades were revised in 2003 to introduce a higher tier and acknowledge the use of para-legals (people with no relevant legal qualifications).

On an assessment the court will usually either allow the appropriate rate for the fee earner conducting the case or assess the level of fee earner that should have conducted the case (if lower) and allow that rate. The rates are guidelines only and can be exceeded in appropriate cases.