SUCCESS FEES,
DEFINITION OF BASE CHARGES,
DISPROPORTIONATE ACCRUAL OF COSTS
In an article for this column in March 2006 (see 156 NLJ 7214, pp 364–65) we addressed the issue of success fees on work done by costs draftsmen in cases funded on a conditional fee agreement (CFA). We considered the prospect that such success fees may be recoverable but expressed the view that costs draftsmen would do well not to be too hasty to order their Ferraris as any success fee would be likely to be payable to the solicitor.
Crane v Canons Leisure Centre
Shortly after that, the judgment of Master Wright, sitting in
Wandsworth County Court, on 1 March 2006, in Crane v Canons Leisure Centre was published. Master Wright’s judgment was that the work of costs draftsmen fell within the definition of “disbursements” in the collective conditional fee agreement (CCFA) before him
