Lawyers will have to justify bills to clients
Solicitors and barristers will be required to mount a more convincing defence of their bills according to the amount of time they spend on a case and produce detailed time sheets to back up their claims.
The move is designed to stop members of the legal profession charging arbitrary or excessive amounts, and to allow clients see exactly what services and labour they are paying for.
Two new state bodies are being established to oversee the new arrangements. The Legal Costs Regulatory Body will publish guidelines on fees and govern how they are charged.
It will abolish the often vague ‘brief fees’ and ‘instruction fees’ although it will not impose a mandatory scale of charges or impose limits on hourly and daily rates.
Neither will it entirely severe the link between the value of the likely award in a civil case and the fee charged. Percentage fees can mean massive payments to lawyers involved in personal injury cases where awards of millions are made, but the advisory board behind the new arrangements shied away from recommending that such lawyers should be restricted to charging the same fees regardless of the potential gains in a case.
A second body, the Legal Costs Assessment Office, will arbitrate in disputes over costs in cases where a party has been successful in a legal action against another party who then objects to paying some or all of the legal costs involved. The new assessment office will be independent of the courts and will replace the existing Office of the Taxing Master.
The Bar Council, the professional body representing barristers, gave a broad welcome to the changes which it said would modernise fee arrangements and make them more transparent for the public.
“The report endorses our view that barristers should be asked at the very earliest stage of the case to provide estimates of their future costs,” a spokesman said. “The idea of time-costing is new to us, but it is an idea that has to be tried to produce greater transparency.”
Solicitors also gave a general welcome to the changes. Director General of the Law Society, Ken Murphy, said many larger legal firms already used a time-billing system and smaller firms would be advised and assisted in changing over to the new arrangements.
“It’s a giant stride towards the world of consumer rights in which we live. The services we provide must not just represent high quality but also value for money.”
Justice Minister Michael McDowell said he believed the changes would increase competition in the market for legal services, reduce fees and avoid nasty surprises for clients who realise too late how costs are mounting up.
“People should be in a position to see what they are letting themselves in for when they embark on a legal action. On occasions solicitors fees are too expensive and on occasions they are very, very good value, but the real issue is for clients to know where they are getting good value and where fees are excessive.”
