Richard Slade And Company Solicitors v Boodia & Anor

An interim statute bill must be a complete, self-contained and final bill of all costs relating to a defined period. It must include profit costs and, where incurred, disbursements and other non-profit costs. A contractual right to issue interim bills does not make partial bills statute bills. Separate invoices for profit costs and disbursements therefore do not start the statutory time limit for assessment unless the arrangement clearly creates a complete bill, or the bills correspond with an agreed interval or natural break. Practical inconvenience to the solicitor does not outweigh the client’s need to know the total costs before deciding whether to seek assessment.

The solicitor appealed against a preliminary decision of Master James dated 17 March 2017 concerning 61 invoices delivered during a retainer for litigation about a right of way. The invoices comprised separate monthly bills for profit costs and later invoices for counsel’s fees and other disbursements.

The clients sought assessment under section 70 of the Solicitors Act 1974. The Master held that the invoices were not interim statute bills and that the assessment period therefore did not run separately from each invoice. The appeal concerned whether the retainer authorised interim statute bills, whether each partial invoice qualified as such a bill, and whether groups of invoices could be treated as composite bills.

1. Grounds 1 and 2. The appeal was dismissed. The retainer permitted the solicitor to render interim bills, but it provided that profit costs would be billed separately from disbursements billed later. The bills were therefore not complete, self-contained bills of costs to date.
2. Under sections 67, 69 and 70 of the Solicitors Act 1974, a statute bill has a particular statutory meaning and consequences. Section 67 permits incurred but unpaid disbursements to be included. It does not make their inclusion optional or treat disbursements as something other than costs. Section 70(6) confirms that costs include profit costs and costs other than profit costs, including disbursements.
3. The court adopted the principles summarised by Spencer J in Bari v Rosen (t/a RA Rosen and Co Solicitors) [2012] 5 Costs LR 851: an interim statute bill may be issued under contract, but must be final for the work covered and complete and self-contained as a bill of costs to date. Whether an individual invoice qualifies remains a question of fact.
4. The assessment period runs from delivery of a qualifying bill. Assessing profit costs without knowing the disbursements for the same period could deprive the client of information needed to decide whether to challenge the bill. The solicitor’s practical difficulties were outweighed by the statutory protection and certainty required for the client.
5. Grounds 3 to 5. The observations in Irvine v Slade & Colman Coyle that the invoices were statute bills were obiter and not binding. The retainer did not provide that earlier profit-cost bills would later be incorporated into statute bills when disbursement invoices arrived. The Chamberlain v Boodle & King approach therefore did not apply. All grounds were dismissed.

• High Court (Queen’s Bench Division): appeal from the decision of Master James in the Senior Courts Costs Office dated 17 March 2017. The appeal was dismissed: [2017] EWHC 2699 (QB).