Judicial Review Costs Recovery: Legal Aid and Inter Partes

Our expert team of Costs Draftsman and Negotiators at ARC Costs are specialists in recovering your Judicial Review costs.  Get in touch to receive free initial advice and to discuss how we can assist.

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What is a Judicial Review?

Judicial Review proceedings fall into the category of Public Law and is a process whereby the Court examines decisions made by public bodies. The Administrative Court is part of the High Court and can deal with cases about judicial reviews, statutory appeals and extradition.

Applying for a Judicial Review encompasses pre-action work and making the Judicial Review application for permission. At this permission stage a court must be convinced that the case has a reasonable prospect of success. If the initial request was refused permission then the application must be renewed at an oral hearing and once permission is granted preparation for the full Judicial Hearing can commence.

As a general rule, costs can not be recovered if a judicial review case settles in the Pre-Action stage. Legal aid is available for many judicial review cases to facilitate access to justice. Costs in Judicial Review cases may be recovered from the Defendant in the event that the Courts award costs via inter-partes costs orders.

The Order will usually state that “the Defendant do pay the Claimant’s costs, to be assessed failing agreement”. In these types of cases, the agreement with the Legal Aid Agency acts as the retainer in the case (in place of a CFA or private agreement for instance, and entitles the Claimant solicitors to claim their costs from the other side.

If you would like more information on recovering costs in legal aid matters, have a look at our recent article.

Judicial Review Costs

If the Respondent has failed to respond to your Letter before Action, and proceedings have been issued and permission is granted to proceed to a Judicial Review, in the event that your claim is settled, the Applicant is entitled to recover their legal fees of the proceedings. As a result, a Bill of Costs will need to be prepared and submitted to the paying party to recover your legal costs and disbursements.

    What Is Recoverable?

    The time spent by a Solicitor is recoverable on an hourly rate basis. Judicial Review costs can be very front-loaded in proceedings, owing to the need to prepare Court bundles, reading lists and undertake significant research as to current legal precedent prior to the commencement of litigation. 

    The work done in issuing a Judicial Review matter is very similar to that of preparing for a Trial in other proceedings. 

    In addition, you can recover your Tribunal/Court fees for the action, as well as any other disbursements incurred, such as Counsel fees, for settling the Detailed Grounds or on providing any representation at any hearings.

    Recovering Judicial Review Costs in Legal Aid Cases

    Claimants in Judicial Review cases may apply for Legal Aid which is made available and provided to individuals who meet a specific threshold.

    In the majority of publicly funded Judicial Review cases, the Solicitor will be required to recover their profit costs and disbursements from the Legal Aid Agency. In some matters, an inter-partes order, for “costs to be assessed” instead. 

    If judicial review costs are required to be recovered from the Legal Aid Agency, costs will need to be submitted via the Legal Aid CCMS System.

    Solicitors must quantify their costs and submit either a Payments on Account (POAs) or an interim or final bill for aspects of work completed.

    It is important to note that the LAA has specific rules you must follow when submitting your invoices, and our Costs Draftsmen can assist you with this to ensure everything is submitted correctly.

    Our legal aid experts regularly use the CCMS system to submit legal aid costs claims and deal with all the administration on behalf of our clients and to free up the time of fee earners, thereby ensuring you can recover your maximum legal aid fees in an expeditious and efficient manner. 

      How Can We Assist?

      If you require any free initial advice, or our assistance with regards to any aspect of your Judicial Review costs, please do not hesitate to contact us via the Contact Form below and one of the team will get in touch on the same working day.

      We provide a Costs Draftsman service with over 20 years of experience amongst our team, and focus on the recovery of costs payable by a paying party and costs awards to a receiving party in any legal matter through the preparation of Costs Budgets (Precedent H), Statements of Costs (N260) and preparing Bills of Costs. We also provide costs negotiation and advocacy services for detailed assessment in all legal matters, and assist with the recovery of inter-partes costs in publicly funded matters.

       

      What Makes Us Different? 

      We are a digital-focused Law Costs Draftsman service, and our skilled costing team can assist anywhere in England and Wales at a competitive cost, in all cases from the County Court to the Supreme Court.

      We hold both national and international accounts and are able to provide legal costs drafting services in any legal matter to any practice looking for a quick and client focused costs partner.

      We create efficiency throughout the cost drafting process by working digitally. Bundles of files no longer need to be sent, scanned and passed back on, and instead we can work in a pragmatic way, on your local server.

      Wherever your location, ARC Costs are the perfect Law Costs Draftsman partner for your law firm.

      If you are looking for a qualified Costs Draftsman in the United Kingdom, then the ARC Costs team are always happy to help with costs challenges. The team can be contacted via email at info@arccosts.co.uk, or by telephone on 01204 397302. For more information on our services, please visit our services page here or find out about our speciality areas of expertise on our legal costs page.

      What We Do Best

      Our dedicated and experienced law costing team provide a wide array of legal costs services.  Find out more by following the links below. 

      Bills of Costs

      We pride ourselves in achieving an average recovery of 72% of all Bills

      Costs Budgets

      We achieve an average of 81% of the value of the Costs Budgets drafted

      Costs Budget Negotiations

      Our team have over 20 years of experience in Costs Budget Negotiations. 

      CPR 45 Fixed Recoverable Costs

      CPR 45 Fixed Recoverable Costs are becoming a more and more common dispute in costs

      Legal Costs Training

      We're experts in legal costs and pride ourselves in the results our team achieve

      Detailed Assessment Proceedings

      Our experienced costs team ensure that the best outcome is achieved on every case

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