The Civil Procedure Rules 1998

Basis of detailed assessment of solicitor and client costs

48.8—(1) This rule applies to every assessment of a solicitor’s bill to his client except—

(a) a bill which is to be paid out of the legal aid fund under the Legal Aid Act 1988(1); or

(b) where the solicitor and his client have entered into a conditional fee agreement as defined by section 58 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990(2).

(2) Costs are to be assessed on the indemnity basis but are to be presumed—

(a) to have been reasonably incurred if they were incurred with the express or implied approval of the client;

(b) to be reasonable in amount if their amount was expressly or impliedly approved by the client;

(c) to have been unreasonably incurred if—

(i) they are of an unusual nature or amount; and

(ii) the solicitor did not tell his client that as a result he might not recover all of them from the other party.

(1)

1988 c. 34.

(2)

1990 c. 41. Section 58 was amended by the Family Law Act 1996 (c. 27), Schedule 8, Part III, paragraph 61.