Bill of costs***Resolved/Affordable payment plan agreed***

[griffiths5]

How do I scan in documents ?

[AndyOrch]

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets - as a picture[jpg] file

don't forget you can use a mobile phone or a digital camera too!!

or

convert existing PC files to PDF [office has an installable print to PDF option]

.

'

BUT......

ENSURE: remove all pers info inc barcodes etc using paint program

but leave all figures and dates.

.

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites

it would be better to upload a multipage pdf if

you have many images too rather than many single pdfs

.

or if you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

or use word and save as pdf

.

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

.

.

dx

[steampowered]

my post crossed with andy, edited because he already posted the instructions

[griffiths5]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43048[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]43049[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]43050[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]43051[/ATTACH]

 

These are some of the documents I have managed to download

[griffiths5]

I not really sure how to reply to the letter by the 16th, Just want to put the whole saga to bed if I can, I suppose the option are to agree all the costs and make an offer of payment or bankruptcy ?

[griffiths5]

Scanned bills of cost have now been attached, these are the most recent and seem to be associated with the Assessement hearing, They seem to very high and the solicitors are all the same rate no matter what grade they are, I would assume I can dispute this bill?

[griffiths5]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43090[/ATTACH]Letter from solicitor

[Old Cogger]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]43090[/ATTACH]Letter from solicitor

 

 

 

Paramount to fraud in my mind, do not agree if it was me I would fight the gits all the way, they are taking the **** and this is the 2000+ century? SRA complaint if it was me, and if court appearance a Formal complaint to the court of Harrasement by numbers and unfair tactics by this so called rough solicitor. others will comment also no doubt, sorry makes my blood boil = look out any solicitors who tries that one with me. one did and ran.

[steampowered]

In relation to costs for the original hearing, it sounds like these were decided at the assessment hearing. If so you cannot contest them again. You can only check their annotations to ensure they accurately reflect what was decided by the judge.

 

In relation to costs for the hearing itself, what was said at the hearing? Did the judge award them costs for the hearing or not? Is there another assessment hearing scheduled? We need more information.

[griffiths5]

Costs were not awarded at the hearing, the judge suggested to put forward any reasons we disputed the additional costs. The original bill has been check after the hearing and seems to be in order. I unable to understand why all the solicitors no matter what grade were charge at the same rate. Also the original bills of costs has been reduced by a few thousand pounds. I really don't see how they can add another £6000 to the original bill. I do need to reply by the 16th.

[steampowered]

Your letter needs to cover two things:

 

1) The original costs. If the £11,618 fairly reflects what was decided at the hearing then you should accept it.

2) The costs of the assessment hearing. The judge normally says who should pay the costs of the assessment hearing - are you sure this was not decided?

 

If the judge genuinely did not decide who should pay costs of the assessment hearing, then you will need to fall back on the general law in CPR 47.20. The default rule is that the receiving party (the other side) is entitled to costs of detailed assessment hearing. However, the court can depart from this rule by taking into account how much the bill of costs has been reduced and how reasonable your objections were.

 

I would write a covering letter stating that you should not be ordered to pay the costs of the assessment hearing because the costs originally claimed by the Claimant were unreasonably high, the Claimants did not make a serious attempt to agree costs without the need for the hearing and you achieved a substantial reduction in the costs awarded from 14k to 11k. As such, you are the 'winner' of the hearing and should not be ordered to pay costs of the assessment.

 

Accompany this with specific points of dispute about the individual items, perhaps in a table, use something like the template at http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/contents/form_section_images/practice_directions/pd43-48_pdf_eps_scp/scp_g.pdf. I suggest you take the following points:

- Costs claimed for the detailed assessment are unnecessarily high and utterly disproportionate. Point out that the costs claimed for the assessment hearing alone are greater than the entire amount of the original claim (!)

- It should not be necessary to instruct counsel for a straightforward assessment hearing about a dispute worth £5000. They should not be awarded counsel's fees or time spent preparing instructions to counsel.

- The Costs Draftsmen Fee is excessive. £1821 for an assessment hearing about a 5k case.

- The hourly rates claimed are excessive, with no distinction between different grades of fee earners. Check the applicable rates here http://www.rcsolicitors.co.uk/solicitors-costs/guideline-hourly-rates/solicitors/2010-2.htm and suggest they can only claim for those rates.

 

I would write a separate "without prejudice" letter at the same time, offering to agree 13k for all their costs including costs of the assessment hearing. I think this would be a reasonable offer in the circumstances.

[griffiths5]

Do you think is is worth rising this with the SRA ?

[steampowered]

Personally I do not think it is worth raising the issue of costs with the SRA. This is because the court must decide what costs are reasonable and can be recovered. As I understand it the court has decided that £11,618 can be reasonably recovered. The SRA is not going to go back and contradict the judge's decision. Of course if the other side's solicitors have acted improperly in some other way than that could potentially be referred to the SRA but that is another issue.

 

By the way - I am very happy to look at your draft of the letter and draft points of dispute about the further costs if you want assistance with this.

[griffiths5]

I have sent off the letter to the solicitors and the court today, If there are any further problems I will post them of the site

 

Many thanks

[griffiths5]

I have now got the final Judgment, £11618.50 assessed bill of costs and £2803.00 cost for the detailed assessment hearing. to be paid by 24th June 2013, Would it be advisable to fill in a financial statement and send to court or try to come to an arrangement with the claimants solicitors given the fact my daughter has really nothing or very little to offer, proberly no more than £20 a month.

[Mary Brown]

Having seen this thread,I have a very similar problem to my fellow cagger and would appreciate any help or sughgestion as I have taken some points from this discussion which are relevant to my case.The main difference in my case is 1.My solicitor abandon me during my case as I complaint to the law firm that both solicitors were in cohoots on my case.2.The other side solicitor then sent this bill of cost which I did not understand.I wrote to the court who advise me to fillN245 I did not as I had disputed the debt.

3The court put a charging order on my flat which is in my sole name.I would like to state here that the claimant did not have an agreement that I owed the money in question.He claimed it was a loan and in fact it was money given to me while the claimant was pursuing a relationship in which I was not retuning his compliments and plied me with gifts to gain my attention.I am now stuck with this bill of cost on my flat and wish to have some help in getting it removed from The Land registry.

[Mary Brown]

The case went on for a long time in the County Court,on my first attendance the Judge Struck the case out and subsqently, the Claimant went and got a solicitor who did not play by the rules.The solicitor from the firm I used became pally with the other side and it is my opinion that some of the information I gave to my solicitor was passed to the other side and used against me.Both solicitors were Silicitors Assistant and not real solicitors.I have kept all my paperwork and I will not rest until I have cleared my name at the Land registry.I just need someone to point me in the right direction.Might I add that the original amount claimed by the claimant was abot £7500 and the bill of cost is over £11,500.

[steampowered]

Griffiths5 -

Yes, you would normally complete a statement of financial affairs and send to the other side seeking to agree monthly repayments. If you can't agree or are unsure how to approach this then apply to court on N245.

I do not think they are likely to accept £20 a month. By my calculations it would take 54 years to clear the debt at that rate excluding interest.

 

It is a good time to consider other options for dealing with the debt. If she does not have any assets there are benefits to declaring bankruptcy and having a clean start once the bankruptcy is finalised rather than paying off the debt for years ... though obviously bankruptcy has downsides. Not really my area of expertise but there is lots about this on the internet and I think there was a post by a national debt line advisor earlier in this thread.

 

Mary Brown -

Please could you post your own thread in the Legal Issues forum? Its easier if people have separate threads to avoid confusion.

[Ganymede]

The case went on for a long time in the County Court,on my first attendance the Judge Struck the case out and subsqently, the Claimant went and got a solicitor who did not play by the rules.The solicitor from the firm I used became pally with the other side and it is my opinion that some of the information I gave to my solicitor was passed to the other side and used against me.Both solicitors were Silicitors Assistant and not real solicitors.I have kept all my paperwork and I will not rest until I have cleared my name at the Land registry.I just need someone to point me in the right direction.Might I add that the original amount claimed by the claimant was abot £7500 and the bill of cost is over £11,500.

 

 

 

FYI Assistant Solicitors are very much solicitors.

[griffiths5]

I will get together with my daughter and complete a financial statement, It not possible for her to pay any more than the £20 as she is a single parent, rented accommodation, no assets or savings. Although she has a job its just about enough to get by

[griffiths5]

Just to let you know that my daughter agreed a monthly payment, She had to sign a gagging document not to disclose the agreement, but I can say it was an amount which was affordable to her.

 

Many thanks for all the help given

[AndyOrch]

Well done Griffiths.

 

Delighted that this has been resolved to your daughters satisfaction.

 

I will amend your thread title to reflect the status.

 

 

 

Regards

 

Andy

[steampowered]

Great news, thanks for letting us know

[popejp]

Can this be used in my case ? as the claimants costs are disproporiontate to mine ???

Urgent Help needed I settle a claim out of court regarding a dispute about a property, as im aware usually if you settle your liable to the costs my total legal fees where £3500 me thinking the claimants would be similar ish turns out to be £20000 after doing some reasearch on the forum I asked for a breakdown in costs and got an e mail today and its now £22095.53 , I wrote to claimants solicitor asking them to be fair and the fact the claimant did alot to progress the case on the 14th October 2013, I have till 13/12/2013 to reply, Im penniless now Ive re mortgaged to pay claiment £47,000 the max i could get was £50000 so the surplus of £3000 was to pay claimants solicitor Ive filled in and income/expenditure form and I only have £150 a month to spare and I havent included my food in that, can someone advice on what I need to do as I can prove im skint and aint got the money anymore to hire a solicitor only thing ive got is as ive had to re mortgageicon as buy to let as my wages where nt good enough to raise the funds Ive got £60,000 positive equity in the house, if anyone interesting in helping i can send the rest of the bill of costs its 33 pages by private message, if anyone can please help i will be very greatful

 

million thanks in advance

 

John

[andydd]

Can this be used in my case ? as the claimants costs are disproporiontate to mine ???

Urgent Help needed I settle a claim out of court regarding a dispute about a property, as im aware usually if you settle your liable to the costs my total legal fees where £3500 me thinking the claimants would be similar ish turns out to be £20000 after doing some reasearch on the forum I asked for a breakdown in costs and got an e mail today and its now £22095.53 , I wrote to claimants solicitor asking them to be fair and the fact the claimant did alot to progress the case on the 14th October 2013, I have till 13/12/2013 to reply, Im penniless now Ive re mortgaged to pay claiment £47,000 the max i could get was £50000 so the surplus of £3000 was to pay claimants solicitor Ive filled in and income/expenditure form and I only have £150 a month to spare and I havent included my food in that, can someone advice on what I need to do as I can prove im skint and aint got the money anymore to hire a solicitor only thing ive got is as ive had to re mortgageicon as buy to let as my wages where nt good enough to raise the funds Ive got £60,000 positive equity in the house, if anyone interesting in helping i can send the rest of the bill of costs its 33 pages by private message, if anyone can please help i will be very greatful

 

million thanks in advance

 

John

 

John. We'd be happy to help but please start your own thread.