Law firm must pay former client’s costs over final bill

A firm must pay its former client’s costs in costs proceedings after it failed to produce a final bill when requested. The client, Jonathan Franklin, instructed Chesterfield-based firm Your Lawyers Limited after he was injured in a work accident. A settlement was reached in 2020. The firm did not provide a final invoice. Franklin then instructed another firm to consider the sums he had been charged by Your Lawyers.

The judgment in Jonathan Franklin v Your Lawyers Limited said a Part 8 application, used to resolve costs disputes after a case has settled but final costs are not quantified, was brought by Franklin after requests for the final statute bill received limited or no response.

The application was issued in October 2024 and Your Lawyers delivered a final statute bill to Franklin in December.

The firm argued Franklin should not receive any costs for the work done prior to and post commencement of proceedings and should pay the firm’s costs, or that there should be no costs order.

Acting senior costs judge Rowley said Your Lawyers ‘cannot complain that the claimant commenced Part 8 proceedings’ given ‘the simplicity of the request for a statute bill’ and ‘in the absence of any substantive response to any of the correspondence, and indeed no response at all after the request for a further form of authority’.

He added: ‘Having not explained why a final statute bill was not forthcoming prior to proceedings being commenced, the defendant filed an acknowledgement of service objecting to an order for a final statute bill but then ignored requests to explain the basis of that objection.’

The judge did not take the view that the communications showed the firm ‘in the worst light’ nor that Franklin’s conduct ‘during the proceedings [were] capable of justifiable criticism’.

Awarding the costs of the application to Franklin, the judge said: ‘The claimant has been the successful party and I award the costs of the application to the claimant. There were no submissions as to the basis of the assessment. In any event, I do not think there is anything out of the norm here, so I would expect the costs to be assessed on the standard basis.’