The Civil Justice Council has handed down a wide range of recommendations on costs budgeting, guidelines hourly rates & beyond: Julian Chamberlayne & Louise Morgan hail the arrival of a more bespoke approach
- The final report of the Civil Justice Council on costs recognised that guideline hourly rates (GHRs) require improvement.
- A number of recommendations reflected the finding that cost budgeting needs to be more bespoke.
The Civil Justice Council (CJC) has now published its ‘Costs Review—Final Report’, following a ‘strategic and holistic review’ of costs by a working group. Costs budgeting, guideline hourly rates (GHRs), costs under pre-action protocols, digitisation of the justice system, and the extension of fixed recoverable costs (FRC) were all considered. The consultation comprised a conference and written submissions from stakeholders, with the consultation reopening to consider the Court of Appeal judgment in Belsner v CAM Legal Services Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 1387.
This report is now in the hands of the Master of the Rolls to decide whether and when to proceed with the many recommendations for change.
