The court laid down guidance for solicitors in charging in the administration of estates: ‘when one comes to translate value into terms of the legal bill, the approach involves two ingrained habits of legal thought. There is nothing strictly logical about either, but they are so ingrained that all approaches have to take them into consideration. The first is that the correct method of charging is by means of a method of percentages, and the second is that the percentage is not a flat rate applied throughout the scale, but declines on a regressive scale as the value of the matters involved increases. In the Property and Reversionary Corporation case a strenuous effort was made to persuade the court, in the light of the fact that that Order – very similar in terms to the rules in the present case – did not prescribe any bands or percentages, that a flat rate ought to be taken over the whole. This was rejected by Donaldson J. in accordance with the general feeling of the profession.’ The court set down sliding regressive yardsticks for assessing the costs applicable.
Judges:
Walton J
Citations:
[1978] 1 WLR 431
Statutes:
Solicitors Remuneration Order 1972
Cited by:
Cited – Jemma Trust Company Ltd v Liptrott, Forrester, Kippax Beaumont Lewis CA 24-Oct-2003
Solicitors sought to challenge an order disallowing a costs item for the administration of an estate which included a percentage of the estate.
Held: Despite advances in time recording, ‘we see no reason to say that it is no longer appropriate . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Costs, Wills and Probate
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.187171