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12 December 2013 / Jason Rowley
Issue: 7588 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Costs
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Grappling with the cost

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Lawyers must get hands-on with costs, says Jason Rowley

 

This article looks at the continued attempts by courts to grapple with the cost of litigation prospectively and not simply at the end of the case. If costs and case management by the courts works as intended, it will render detailed assessments simpler and rarer than they are now. If on the other hand, the new arrangements are too unwieldy, are there other options that might be considered in due course?

 

I’m a lawyer, get me out of here

There is something almost visceral about the dislike engendered in most lawyers when asked to provide an indication of their fees that is a fixed sum or may become so. Why is that? In everyday life lawyers, like everyone else, expect the goods and services they buy to be priced in a clear and calculable, if not fixed way. But when it comes to their own fees, there is huge reluctance to put forward any firm figures

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Andy Burnham's brand of 'Manchesterism' could offer fresh thinking on legal aid and access to justice if it reaches Westminster, according to Roger Smith, NLJ columnist and former director of JUSTICE
The constitutional fallout from a change of prime minister, rather than the politics, is under scrutiny as questions arise over the limits of executive authority in a leadership transition
The legal profession is undergoing a fundamental shift from selling services to creating technology-enabled products, according to Professor Luke Mason, Head of School of Law at Regent's University London
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