Conditional fee arrangements & interim statute bills: at odds with modern practice?

• The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in Signature Litigation LLP v Ivanishvili on the grounds that invoices worth £12.8m were not ‘final nor complete’.
• Coulson LJ noted the appeal was an example of the ‘ongoing problem’ of the Solicitors Act 1974’s dichotomy with modern practice.

The Court of Appeal recently dismissed the appeal in Signature Litigation LLP v Ivanishvili [2024] EWCA Civ 901, [2024] All ER (D) 43 (Aug) on the grounds that invoices worth £12.8m were not ‘final nor complete’. Coulson LJ concluded that 79 paid invoices were not ‘interim statute’ bills (ISBs) under the Solicitors Act 1974 (SA 1974), and therefore the s 70 limit for challenge of one year after the bill had been paid did not apply.

The question in the appeal was whether the invoices were requests for payments on account or ISBs: the right to issue the latter can only arise at a natural break in the proceedings, or by agreement