R v Ramela Gordon

For graduated fees under the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, the PPE count must reflect the quantity of legible evidence served. The mechanistic approach applies where electronic formatting artificially suppresses the number of A4 pages represented by the material.

That approach is not confined to documents formatted as larger paper pages. It also applies where data fitted onto A4 pages is so small that substantial magnification is needed for ordinary reading. The appropriate multiplier should generally be expressed in whole hundreds and should produce a document equivalent to a normal 11 or 12-point font.

SJ Law Solicitors appealed under regulation 29 of the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 against the determining officer’s calculation of prosecution evidence pages for the graduated fee claimed in proceedings involving drugs, firearm and ammunition offences.

The solicitors claimed 10,000 PPE, but 4,350 pages were allowed. The dispute concerned electronically served evidence, including A4 documents containing data that could not be read without 200% or 400% magnification. The central issue was whether the established approach to electronic upscaling also applied to this form of reduced legibility.

1. Appeal allowed. The determining officer was directed to recalculate the appropriate PPE, and the solicitors were awarded the costs of the appeal, including £750 exclusive of VAT and the £100 appeal fee.
2. The court treated documents containing minute data on A4 pages as materially analogous to documents formatted as larger pages. In both situations, the apparent page count is artificially reduced because the quantity of evidence that would occupy legible A4 pages is compressed.
3. The mechanistic approach adopted in R v Mpanzu was applied. The guidance in Lord Chancellor v Lam and Meerbux, and its application in R v Bowen, did not govern this situation.
4. Where an A4 document requires 200% magnification to become normally legible, it may be treated as two A4 pages. Where 400% magnification is required, it may be treated as four pages. Multipliers should realistically be in whole multiples of 100. The guiding principle is that magnification should produce a printed document in a normal 11 or 12-point font.
5. The determining officer’s reliance on the fact that the material was served on A4 pages did not provide a sufficient basis for refusing font-based upscaling. The relevant considerations were the amount of data contained and the need to make the material easier to read.

• Determining officer: Allowed 4,350 prosecution evidence pages for the graduated fee, against the solicitors’ claim for 10,000 pages.
• High Court (Senior Court Costs Office): Allowed the appeal under regulation 29 of the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 and directed recalculation of the PPE.