10 Reasons to Outsource your Legal Costs Work

10 Reasons to Outsource your Legal Costs Work

Outsourcing is defined here as

 “a practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers”

 or as we see it, a practice of creating and sustaining successful partnerships.

 As costs draftsmen, costs lawyers and costs consultants we provide expert outsourced services to the legal profession. Alongside traditional costs drafting roles, outsourcing includes working in house for Solicitors. It’s a great way to cement the working relationship between Solicitor and cost draftsman and has significant added benefits including:

Immediate On-Site Access As a Solicitor you have immediate on site access to the costs draftsman's knowledge and experience of costs drafting law, administration and procedure

Access to Missing Documents As a Costs Draftsman you have immediate on-site access to those fundamental documents that can often be missing from the Solicitor's file (ledgers, disbursements, pleadings,costs orders and correspondence) and that cause delays in progressing costs.

Face-to Face Encounters

Working in-house provides a rare but welcome opportunity to take instructions face to face from our instructing solicitor and a chance to discuss specific issues of importance that a solicitor would wish to bring out in the Bill of Costs and for subsequent negotiations.

Direct Charge

A costs draftsman whether employed internally or externally is a fee-earner. The unequivocal judgment of Lord Justice May in Crane v Canons Leisure [2007] EWCA Civ 1352 is that work done in preparing a bill of costs is “solicitor” work for which solicitors are entitled to make a direct charge.

Profit 
Where still applicable, the success fee is recoverable and paid to the Solicitor not the Costs Draftsman as profit.

Pay Only for Work Done

When outsourcing costing needs, you will  pay the costs draftsman only for the work done: no holiday pay, sick pay, no national insurance contribution nor auto-enrolment payment and no periods of work shortages where you keep staff available but with little to do

Up-to-Date, knowledgeable work-force at no extra cost

The costs of employing costs draftsmen of sufficient calibre and keeping them updated can be prohibitive especially for smaller firms and particularly with the raft of subsequent changes passing through under the guidance of Lord Justice Jackson. It is our job to keep abreast of developments within costs law: a knowledge that we can pass onto client firms through an active in-house training programme.

At John M Hayes we often provide training on maximizing costs recovery and in an age where firms are under pressure financially - we know that every penny counts.

Case management 

Within a specialist legal costs firm, the costs draftsman has the benefit of working alongside experienced colleagues of graduate calibre with the benefit of ongoing broad experience in managing caseloads and training and support. We have the capacity and time to develop detailed costs arguments and negotiation skills which can obscure fee-earning capability for other legal professionals.

Turnaround times

Outsourcing can prevent solicitors from failing to meet turnaround times or tight deadlines at peak times during the financial year. Even firms with their own in-house costing teams call on external assistance particularly at busy times or where costs arguments become complex and a second opinion is sought.

Additional hidden benefits 

Outsourced workers bring additional proven skills to each office visit . Proficient at “hot-desking”, IT on-the-move and adept at blending in with the tea round – we bring hidden benefits to your firm and provide a cost effective way to make a difference to your cash flow and recovery.