ITS OFFICIAL – THE BEST COSTS ADVICE YOU CAN GIVE TO A YOUNG LAWYER: READ IT HERE: CONTEST WINNER
Following detailed discussions by the judging panel the winner of the Wig and Pens Prize for the best costs advice has been decided.
THE CRITERIA
“What single piece of Advice on costs would you give to a young lawyer? What would help them throughout their career?”
THE WINNER
The winner is Ged Courtney from Slater and Gordon.
THE WINNING ENTRY
“Attendance notes serve many functions. They allow you to record your time for billing purposes and act as useful reminders of work done months ago. When it comes to costs however, their most valuable use is as a contemporaneous account of not only what you did, but why you did it. The Court should not apply hindsight, so your view of the matter at the time of the note is incredibly useful. At assessment, the difference between recovering the time spent and not often comes down to the quality of the supporting note. Good notes will allow you to almost communicate directly with the Court. Use that opportunity. If a particular task was important, why was it important? If it took longer than might be apparent from the other materials, then why? It remains true however that notes should be professional and relevant, given the potential for judicial scrutiny.”
THE PRIZE
The pen, an historic Tower of London pen, is being made this weekend to Ged’s own specifications.
REMINDER OF A WEBINAR: THE COSTS JUDGE OVER YOUR SHOULDER
I am presenting a webinar on the 6th April 2023 – The Costs Judge Over Your Shoulder 2023 – Maximising recovery. Booking details are available here.
Unsurprisingly the use of attendance notes at the assessment stage features quite highly.
The webinar uses examples from reported cases to show where failures and omissions by the receiving party has led to their not recovering costs, or led to costs being substantially reduced.
- What happens at a detailed assessment?
- Where can things go wrong on assessment?
- Why time records and attendance notes matter
- What is the judge considering when assessing costs?
- What is the costs judge looking at?
- What is the costs judge looking for?
- Strategies – from the start of a case – for keeping the costs judge happy
THE OTHER ENTRIES
Many thanks to all those who took part. All the entries can be viewed here
IF YOU WANT A PEN ANYWAY
The Wig and Pen website can be found here.
Congratulations Ged!!!
I had a detailed assessment once where the judge commented “Perhaps you could relay to Mr (Solicitor) that if he is going to create attendance notes after the fact, he should at least try to use the same colour paper as the real ones.”