J-Codes & the new bill of costs format do nothing to reduce the actual costs of litigation in the UK, says Francis Kendall
In the world of costs, two key issues have been at the focus of lengthy debate following the introduction of costs budgeting: the introduction of J-Codes and the continued development of a new form of bill of costs designed to deal with the same.
The theory behind J-Codes is clear—properly recorded time coupled with appropriate software should result in a button-pressing exercise for the categorisation of legal spend in litigation for the purposes of budgeting, monitoring a budgeted case, and any arising detailed assessment.
The concept of any new format bill of costs flows from this process, drawing on the information that should already be available to streamline and reduce the costs of the assessment process.
Realistic goal?
As has always been recognised since the introduction of legal-based time-recording software well over 20 years ago, this has always been a realistic, if slightly utopian, goal. Any justifiably and simplistically coded
