Page 25 - PIC-Magazine-Issue-26

By contrast, an incomplete file may simply serve to annoy the Costs Officer,
as they will be required to spend additional time looking for attendance notes
or supporting documents. If they are unable to locate such documents, you then
run the risk of having your item heavily reduced or even disallowed entirely.
Guideline Hourly Rates
GRADE A B C D
LONDON 2 £422 £327 £276 £157
LONDON 3 £319 £262 £209 £146
NATIONAL 1 £295 £247 £201 £142
NATIONAL 2 £288 £247 £200 £142
Annual Increases
As I write this (in December 2025!) We are currently awaiting news of the new
Guideline Hourly Rates for 2026. It is likely we will have found out, either shortly
before or shortly after Christmas. The new rates are detailed above.
Clearly it is good news for us all that these rates are increasing on an annual basis,
in line with inflation. No doubt, many of you reading will remember those ten years
or more of the 2010 Guideline Hourly rates!
That said, do remember to ensure that your terms of business are updated upon
publication of these new hourly rates. This will ensure you are able to recover them.
Whilst it remains unlikely that the SCCO will require sight of these terms for the
assessment, do remember that if, for any reason, a third party becomes involved,
you will want to ensure you have all appropriate terms in place for the recovery of
these rates.
I always remind practitioners, during my various training sessions, that the guideline
rates are just that; guidelines! That said, should we wish to enhance a particular fee
earner’s rate, be that through the entirety of the bill, or for specific work undertaken
during the course of the billing period, it will be for us to convince the Costs Officer
that a departure from the guideline rates is justified.
Your terms of business should also allow for the enhancement of these rates.
It may be that a junior fee earner is effectively running the file and thereby
mitigating the input of more senior fee earners. It could be that there are
contentious or unique aspects of the case that are being dealt with by a more
junior fee earner. In these cases, there may be some scope to apply a reasonable
enhancement to an hourly rate.
Current SCCO Turnaround Times
Delays at the SCCO continue, unfortunately.
At the time of writing, the main headlines are:-
1 Acceptances (or rejections!) of assessments (following request for
assessment filed) = approx. Two weeks
2 Lead in time for receipt of files to assessment = 13 months
3 Final Costs Certificates = approx. Two weeks
(Please note these turnaround times are accurate as at December 2025).
This means that it will take approximately 14-15 months from start to finish to
have your costs assessed. However, these times only relate to bills up to £35,000
in value. You might experience a further delay of one to two months where the
value of your bill is between £35,000 and £100,000.
www.pic.legal Spring & Summer 2026
For bills of more than £100,000 in
value, these are usually assessed by
a Costs Judge. You should receive
a notice of the date for provisional
assessment and will be asked to submit
your files if these are required at that
time. The lead in times will likely vary
depending on which Costs Judge has
been assigned your bill.
Don’t forget, you are able
to take interim invoices
throughout the course of the
deputyship year, of up to 75%
of your estimated costs or
WIP (whichever is the lower).
Do ensure that you instruct your
costs draftsman as quickly as possible
following the conclusion of the
deputyship year (or completion of the
application), and make sure that all
documents are correctly signed and
dated to ensure they are not rejected
when submitted to the SCCO. This will
ensure any delays are mitigated and
help to ensure you recover your costs
as quickly as possible.
Well, that’s it for another of my
COP costs round ups. I do hope you
have found some of the information
contained within this article to be useful
and/or of interest.
I often find that, like so many things in
life, many issues in relation to costs are
not simply black and white and there
are so many shades of grey in between.
Do feel free to get in touch with myself
or my friendly team should you have
any queries in relation to this, or any
other costs related queries and we will
be more than happy to discuss further
with you and see how we can help.
PARTNERS IN COSTS
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