The Court of Appeal’s go-to judge for costs disputes has said that the Solicitors Act is a relic in need of reform.

Lord Justice Coulson told an event last week that section 70 of the act, which allows for assessment if a client believes they have been overcharged – is a ‘mess’ that creates confusion and leads to litigation.

Coulson, who often sits on costs-related appeals, acknowledged the courts spend a lot of time on disputes about interim and statute bills but said this showed the need for reform of the 1974 legislation.

‘Whenever you look at section 70 and the way the act works as a whole it is astonishingly old-fashioned,’ Coulson told the event organised by the Association of Costs Lawyers. ‘It was drafted at a time when I was doing my O-levels. They have gone and my view is that the act should go too and be replaced with an act that reflects what you as solicitors do and what the client expects.’

The judge was careful not to criticise solicitors, saying they were dealing with the act as best they can, but suggested that consumer protection must be factored into any discussion about bills of costs.

‘There is tension now between interim payments and statute bills. Solicitors, with respect to them, want to have their cake and eat it. They want interim payments but they want the protection that it won’t be argued about later.

‘Every solicitor ought to be entitled to interim payments but there ought to be a system where protection does not kick in automatically.’

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Last year in Ivanishvili v Signature Litigation LLP, Coulson dismissed an appeal from a law firm that argued its monthly invoices worth £12.8m were statute bills and could not be assessed. The judge said then that solicitors seeking interim payments but wanting section 70 protection made for ‘uneasy bedfellows’.

In a wide-ranging discussion held at the office of London firm Bolt Burdon Kemp, Coulson accepted there had been a lot of cases involving disputes over Part 36 but said these were necessary for testing the rules.

‘The problem is people will always find a potential way round being on the hook of a potential Part 36 offer. You can’t draft rules that allow for every possible eventuality,' he said. 'People complain – not unreasonably – that the White Book is too big: if the rules had to cover every eventuality it would be eight volumes.’