Agency fees or expert fees? Masood Ahmed & Lal Akhter clarify the rules surrounding fees paid to a medical reporting organisation when assessing costs
- As part of the costs assessment process, the courts will expect the receiving party to provide a clear breakdown of the fees of any medical reporting agency instructed to provide expert reports.
- A failure to provide a breakdown may result in the receiving party not recovering that element of their costs.
- The decision in Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust v Luke Hoskin may impact more widely on the practice of agencies providing other expert services.
The issue which came before Judge Bird in Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust v Luke Hoskin (Administrator of the Estate of Pippa Hoskin (deceased)) (County Court at Manchester, on appeal) (22 May 2023) was this: is a receiving party (ie the party being paid its costs) required to provide a breakdown in its bill of costs between the cost of an expert’s report and the costs of a medical reporting organisation (MRO) providing the
