Lord Justice Peter Coulson described a section of the 1974 Act as a "mess"
UK Court of Appeal judge Lord Justice Peter David William Coulson PC has called for the UK Solicitors Act to be updated, reported the Law Society Gazette.
Speaking at an event held by the Association of Costs Lawyers, Coulson described section 70 of the 1974 Act as a “mess” that resulted in confusion and litigation. The section allows for assessments to be conducted if clients believed they have been overcharged.
“Whenever you look at section 70 and the way the act works as a whole it is astonishingly old-fashioned. It was drafted at a time when I was doing my O-levels. They have gone and my view is that the act should go too and be replaced with an act that reflects what you as solicitors do and what the client expects,” said Coulson in a statement published by the Gazette.
Coulson, who typically hears costs-related appeals, recommended that consumer protection be considered in bills of costs discussions even as he acknowledged that solicitors were handling the Solicitors Act provisions to the best of their ability.
“There is tension now between interim payments and statute bills. Solicitors, with respect to them, want to have their cake and eat it. They want interim payments but they want the protection that it won’t be argued about later,” Coulson said. “Every solicitor ought to be entitled to interim payments but there ought to be a system where protection does not kick in automatically.”
Last year, Coulson shot down an appeal from a law firm that claimed monthly invoices – valued at £12.8 million – were statute bills and exempt from assessment.
The judge conceded that Part 36 had sparked many disputes, but said that it was needed to test the rules.
“The problem is people will always find a potential way round being on the hook of a potential Part 36 offer. You can’t draft rules that allow for every possible eventuality. People complain – not unreasonably – that the White Book is too big: if the rules had to cover every eventuality it would be eight volumes,” Coulson said.