Legal Costs Experts

Our team of legal costs experts have over 20 years of experience in preparing Bills of Costs. Find out how we can help you today.

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Remote Law Costing Services and Legal Costs Experts

ARC Costs provide expertise in recovering legal fees in civil and commercial costs matters, and a modern law costing practice with in-house IT and technology services. We specialise in working digitally, whether it be via remote access, digital files (via WeTransfer) or the provision of time records.

As legal costs experts, we maximise your WIP recovery and also expedite your cashflow by providing an efficient and digital costs drafting and negotiation service.

Precedent H Preparation and Precedent R Discussion Reports

We require access to your file, either digitally or in paper form, as well as any time records. Any Bill details the work done in conducting the case, item-by-item, and details the work done for every item incurred. This is so that any paying party can scrutinise the work done, and so it is imperative that you instruct an experienced Law Costs Draftsman to prepare a Bill. This ensures that a reasonable Bill of Costs is drawn, including only recoverable items, and maximising the recovery on your Bill on any assessment.

Bills of Cost and Costs Negotiation Services

On receipt of instructions, we will ensure a 5 working day turnaround (7 day overall) on all drafting instructions.

Your client manager will track, monitor and analyse the ongoing progress of all your cases and report on outcomes, to ensure that you are maximising your return on every case.

All our services are also available ‘in-house’, so that our law costs draftsman can attend at your offices to advise upon and cost any matters. Legal costs training sessions can also be provided in-house free of charge to advise on best practice.

CPR 45 FRC Claims

Fixed Recoverable Costs (FRC) were expanded in the 2013 Civil Costs reforms to make legal costs processes more efficient and unambiguous in low-value personal injury (under £25,000) RTA/EL/PL claims. Inevitably however, disputes still arise requiring the attention of our team.

The legal costs experts at ARC Costs specialise in dealing with FRC Claims, to ensure you recover your full fixed fees and disbursements.

CCMC & Detailed Assessment Advocacy

The legal costs experts at ARC Costs are able to provide advocates at both Costs and Case Management Conferences and detailed assessments, as well as at any settlement meeting. ADR is becoming an ever popular approach to settling costs disputes, and thus it is imperative that you have a costs representative who can ensure the maximum recovery of your legal fees.

We are successful at over 90% of the hearings/meetings we attend, and we will always advise on prospects on beating any current offer before providing you with the advice to proceed to any contested hearing/settlement meeting.

Some of Our Most Frequently Asked Questions

What Information is Needed to Prepare a Bill of Costs?

We require access to your file, either digitally or in paper form, as well as any time records. Any Bill details the work done in conducting the case, item-by-item, and details the work done for every item incurred. This is so that any paying party can scrutinise the work done, and so it is imperative that you instruct an experienced Law Costs Draftsman to prepare a Bill. This ensures that a reasonable Bill of Costs is drawn, including only recoverable items, and maximising the recovery on your Bill on any assessment.

When is an Electronic Bill of Costs Required, and What Special Rules Apply?

In Multi-Track cases where costs are claimed post 6 April 2018, the new style Electronic Bill of Costs is required. This is a new format Bill presented in an Excel format, which allows the parties and Court to easily filter between Budget phases, work types, tasks and activities. A Costs Budget is often required to be filed in Multi Track cases, and if a Costs Management Order has been made, this will need to be reflected in the Electronic Bill of Costs by virtue of detailing the phasing of work, and also splitting the work between incurred and anticipated costs. A Precedent Q will also be required, which details how the incurred and anticipated costs compare to any Costs Management Order made.

When serving an Electronic Bill of Costs, as well as sending a postal copy, a digital Excel version also needs to be emailed to the paying party. In addition, on filing at Court for any detailed assessment hearing request, a digital copy of the Bill will need to be e-filed at Court.

What Items Should Not Be Claimed in a Bill?

Helpful guidance is provided in CPR 47 PD 5.12 as to the heads of costs that are recoverable inter-partes however, over the years common law has also developed in specifying what types of costs should not be claimed.

These include:

Costs of funding (setting up the retainer) – Motto & Ors v Trafigura Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1150
Inter-fee earner discussions are only allowed in complex cases – TUI UK Ltd v Tickell & Others [2016] EWHC 2741 (QB)
One should be cautious to claim any estimated time without supporting evidence.

What is the Expected Recovery on any Bill?

The recovery of a Bill on detailed assessment is dependant upon whether a standard or indemnity costs order is made. Generally, if the hourly rates remain unaffected, it is reasonable for between 70 – 80% of a Bill of Costs to be recovered inter-partes however, there can be other influencing factors including the reductions applied to any ‘large ticket’ items, such as success fees, disbursements or hourly rates.

If a Costs Management Order has been made, it is not unusual for recovery on a Bill of Costs to be between 80 – 90% so long as the Costs Budget has been adhered to.

Why Instruct ARC Costs to Prepare Your Bill of Costs?

At ARC Costs, our Costs Draftsman pride themselves on their average recovery of 72% of all Bills, achieved in the majority of cases within 1 month of service of the Bill of Costs upon the paying party.

In addition, our service provides as standard:

Every Bill is drafted with a high degree of accuracy and is vetted by at least two senior members of staff;
Bills are drafted within an SLA of 5 working days as standard;
The majority of Bills are negotiated within 1 month of service, and prior to Points of Dispute/Reply being required;
Review of every Bill negotiation instruction atleast once per week to ensure progression of the case;
That an amicable approach is taken to Bill negotiations, and that the client is advised on every offer received as to the potential risks of rejecting any offer;
That an advocate is made available for any detailed assessment hearing if required
Fixed and prompt timescales for all litigious steps including issuing Part 8 proceedings, preparing Points of Reply, and lodging any Bill to assessment.

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How We Deliver The Results That You Want

Our management team are regularly monitoring the quality of our work. We achieve the results we do because we’re not about the quantity of work that goes out the door in any given month; but about the quality we’re delivering our work.