Costs Lawyer Standards Board developments and the impact on Costs Lawyers

1. Costs Lawyer Standards Board Developments And The Impact On Costs Lawyers

2. Costs Lawyer Standards Board awarded £58,000 in government cash for research project • The Costs Lawyer Standards Board has been awarded a £58,000 grant from the government’s Regulators Pioneer Fund for a research project exploring how costs lawyers could bring about downward pressure on the cost of legal services. • The fund invited regulators and local authorities to apply for grants of up to £200,000 for projects that could help create a UK regulatory environment that encourages business innovation and growth. • The project will investigate whether costs lawyers could help reduce the cost of legal services if regulation or legislation were different.

3. The background to the Costs Lawyer Standards Board’s proposal was the finding of the Competition and Markets Authority that the way the current legal regulatory framework was based on professional titles and reserved activities has the potential to restrict competition unnecessarily or leave a regulatory gap. • It is understood that the research will consider how costs lawyers might drive services in a way that exerts a downward pressure on the costs of legal services and whether any regulatory or legislative change relevant to costs lawyers would help to achieve this. • The role of the Costs Lawyer has changed significantly in recent years, with the shift to budgeting meaning we have developed project management and other skills.

4. Costs lawyers are now playing a far greater role in the delivery of legal services, and it is hoped that the project will show how costs lawyers can support the public and help law firms operate more cost-effectively. Costs Lawyer London

5. Costs Lawyer Standards Board under pressure to help potential clients make informed choices • The Legal Services Board (LSB) has published a draft statement of policy on consumer outcomes that sets expectations about ensuring legal services providers offer helpful information to consumers about the cost and quality of their services and on redress and regulation. • The draft statement is to put pressure on regulators, including the Costs Lawyer Standards Board, to ensure that those they regulate provide potential clients with the information they need to make informed decisions.

6. It recommended that the regulators, including the Costs Lawyer Standards Board, improve market transparency for consumers and the LSB to coordinate and oversee progress. • The consultation paper recognized that different approaches may be appropriate for some of parts of the profession, noting that few costs lawyers regulated by the Costs Lawyer Standards Board deal directly with individual consumers and small businesses. • It is the LSB’s view that too many people and small businesses who need legal support have been unable to navigate the legal services market and get the help they need.

7. They want to work with the Costs Lawyer Standards Boatd and other regulators to build on the progress made and make it easier for consumers to make informed and effective choices when selecting a legal services provider. • The consultation will run for 12 weeks until 8 December 2021. • Legal Services Board approves a 2% increase in practicing fee for Costs Lawyer • The Legal Services Board has approved the Costs Lawyer Standards Board’s application for a 2% increase in the 2022 practising certificate fee from £275 to £281. • The Costs Lawyer Standards Board projects total income for 2022 of £191,020, based on the assumption of 670 costs lawyers paying a fee, a slight reduction from last 675 in 2021.

8. The practicing certificate fee was static at £250 from 2011 to 2019, increasing to £275 in 2020. The rise in 2022 is said to reflect changes in the Costs Lawyer Standard’s Board projected cost base. • Costs Lawyer Standards Board consultation on draft competency statement • The Costs Lawyer Standards Board has issued a consultation on a draft competency statement that aims to articulate the knowledge and skills that a competent Costs Lawyer is expected to possess when they enter the profession. • It also aims to give providers of the costs lawyer qualification with more flexibility in the way they deliver the course and ensure that student costs lawyers receive the training they need to prepare them for costs practice.

9. The statement sets out the legal and technical knowledge that a costs lawyer will possess at the point of qualification, skills that a costs lawyer will demonstrate, the minimum standard to which the costs lawyer’s knowledge and skills will be applied, and the professional attributes that will help a costs lawyer meet the minimum standard and progress successfully beyond qualification. • Nine core areas of legal and technical knowledge that all qualifying costs lawyers should possess were identified. These were civil litigation, other litigation, legal aid, contract law, tort, budgeting, bills of costs, points of dispute and replies, and professional standards and ethics.

10. The seven core skills comprise: relationship management, case management, self-management, agile thinking, effective communication, negotiation and advocacy. Costs Lawyers London

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