Costs
Evans v Fletchers Solicitors Ltd [2026] EWHC 1523 (SCCO)
The Senior Courts Costs Office allowed the claimant’s challenge to the success fee charged by the defendant solicitors in a costs assessment under s 70, Solicitors Act 1974. The claimant had instructed the defendant to represent him in a personal injury claim arising from a road traffic accident in 2017, which settled for £250,000 in 2021. The defendant rendered a bill including a success fee of £30,365.13 under a conditional fee agreement (CFA). The central issue was whether the case should have been funded by the claimant’s existing before-the-event (BTE) legal expenses insurance rather than a CFA. The court found, among other things, that the defendant’s enquiries into alternative funding were unreasonable, having made no enquiries for over two years after the accident and failing to contact the legal expenses insurer directly. The court held that on the balance of probabilities, BTE insurance was available through the claimant’s Zurich home insurance policy, managed by DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Ltd, which covered personal injury claims. The court rejected arguments that the £50,000
