Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition of ‘The Machinery of Justice in England’
- Abbreviations
- I Historical introduction
- II Civil jurisdiction
- III Tribunals
- IV Criminal jurisdiction
- V The personnel of the law
- VI The European dimension
- VII The cost of the law
- 38 The finances of the law courts
- 39 ‘Costs’
- 40 Legal aid
- 41 Future prospects for legal aid
- VIII Law Reform
- Appendix A The Report of the Civil Justice Review
- Table of Cases cited
- Table of Statutes cited
- Table of Stationery Office publications cited
- Index
39 - ‘Costs’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition of ‘The Machinery of Justice in England’
- Abbreviations
- I Historical introduction
- II Civil jurisdiction
- III Tribunals
- IV Criminal jurisdiction
- V The personnel of the law
- VI The European dimension
- VII The cost of the law
- 38 The finances of the law courts
- 39 ‘Costs’
- 40 Legal aid
- 41 Future prospects for legal aid
- VIII Law Reform
- Appendix A The Report of the Civil Justice Review
- Table of Cases cited
- Table of Statutes cited
- Table of Stationery Office publications cited
- Index
Summary
Solicitors have never had the freedom enjoyed in other professions of fixing the amount of their fees. From early times a person presented with a solicitor's bill has been able to get it ‘taxed’, that is, to have it examined by an official of the court who has power to disallow it or reduce the amount charged for the various items. The position today is regulated by statute. Section 87 of the Solicitors Act 1974 empowers a Committee headed by the Lord Chancellor to make rules governing how much solicitors may charge, and these rules are enforced by the method of taxation as laid down in later sections of the Act.
A bill is made up of disbursements and profit costs. Disbursements are payments made by the solicitor on behalf of his client such as court fees, stamp duties, counsel's fees, payments to witnesses, and so on. ‘Profit costs’ is the technical term for the solicitor's charges for his own work. It dates from the days when solicitors commonly had no offices and did their work personally from their homes, often meeting their clients in inns, but nowadays of course the solicitor has to meet his business expenses (the rent of his office, salaries and wages of his staff, and so on) before arriving at the net figure that is his real profit.
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- Information
- Jackson's Machinery of Justice , pp. 449 - 462Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989