The Solicitors Act 1974 may still underpin legal regulation, but its age is increasingly showing. Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Morrison-Hughes of the Association of Costs Lawyers argues that the Act is ‘out of step with modern consumer law’ and actively deters fairness
Clients have just one month to challenge a statute bill, a timeframe she describes as ‘simply unrealistic’, while the notorious one-fifth rule discourages legitimate assessments by shifting costs risk back to the client. Judges, lawyers and consumers alike struggle with distinctions between contentious and non-contentious costs, and with arguments over whether bills are interim or final.
Morrison-Hughes notes the irony that a regime designed to promote transparency now undermines it, with outcomes so unpredictable that cost-benefit analysis becomes ‘nigh on impossible’.
Her conclusion is blunt: tinkering will not suffice. Without wholesale reform, the system risks becoming a ‘Monty Python sketch’ rather than a route to justice.
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