Page 15 - PIC e-newsletter Spring Issue 8

ARTICLE
Electronic Bills of Costs,
J-Codes and the Common Questions
Sean Linley
is a Costs Consultant at PIC.
The 6th April 2018 is electronic bill day. The most significant date in costs since
LJ Jackson’s reforms programme started on 1 April 2013. For a long time, the introduction of the new electronic Bill of Costs and J-Codes was something that
felt like it would never happen. It was constantly put back, suffered delays and the voluntary pilot scheme barely had any uptake. It’s no surprise that it became something that sat in the backs of the minds of most practitioners. Sean Linley reports.
s of the 6th April 2018, the
Here are some of the most common
17 separate tabs and breaks time down
CIVIL COSTS
‘expensive’ and ‘cumbersome’
Bill of Costs (as described by LJ Jackson) will be no more.
Practitioners will be expected to embrace the Precedent S (allegedly so called because the new Bill of Costs
is like a spreadsheet) and the ‘J-Code Lite’ time recording which will power the same.
PIC has been (and indeed continue to) travel the country to provide training to legal practices on the changes, providing tips and guidance on how to traverse this new area. There’s a
lot to learn with the new Phase/Task/ Activity codes (‘J-Code Lite’) having 410 different possible combinations.
questions we’ve faced so far:
1 What is the Electronic Bill of Costs?
LJ Jackson was highly critical of the traditional Bill of Costs, particularly
the fact that it did not make use of the technologies now available. Resultantly, a working group was set-up to consider the issue and the Precedent S was born.
The Precedent S is a big spreadsheet, rather than the ‘ledger’ form currently in use. The electronic version of which is so large that it can’t be printed (there is a smaller printable version). It spans
according to Phase, Activity and Task.
Its sections can be broken down into the front page, certificate, narrative and details of hourly rates, and the time broken down in the main spreadsheet by part, phase, budgeted costs, tasks and activities and communications. It’s a lot of detail to get used to.
It is intended that law firms will invest in electronic case management systems that allows them to record time in the necessary format, however, the reality is that doing so will incur expense and require investment in training of staff.
During training sessions presented to date, solicitors have welcomed the much simplified ‘J-Code Lite’ in comparison to the over complicated original J-Code set. Many practitioners are contacting their IT suppliers to see what support they are proposing to offer.
Reuben Glynn, Managing Director.
www.pic.legal
Spring 2018
INDUSTRY EXPERTS
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