Solicitor and client cap

Lynch v Paul Davidson Taylor (a firm) [2004] EWHC 89 (QB)

Section 74(3) of the Solicitors Act 1974 provides that the amount to be allowed on assessment as between a solicitor and a client in county court cases is limited to the amount which ‘could have been allowed’ in respect of a particular item as between party and party. The Court rejected the contention that where a party-and-party assessment had taken place, the amount allowed represented a cap on the costs which could be awarded between solicitor and client. The Court could have allowed any amount. When the subsection was introduced the costs in the county court were in most cases recovered on one or other of five scales, according to the amount of money in dispute. The section was designed to limit the costs between solicitor and client to those scales in the same way as scales limited the costs recoverable as between the parties. The reference to s74(3) in CPR rule 48.8(1A) shows that the section does not simply survive, but it is intended still to bite wherever there are fixed costs, as for fast-track trial costs and cases on the small claims track. Whether or not there will, as time goes by, come to be more circumstances where costs are fixed remains to be seen, but if this does occur, then s74(3) will no doubt apply in those cases also.