At Paramount Legal Costs, we like to build long term relationships with our clients, and this is certainly the case in the Litigation department. This enables us to take responsibility for specific clients to ensure that their needs are met, and so that each client knows who they can contact if they have a query or urgent file to be costed. This way, our clients know who we are, and we get to know the individual ways of working, and this has certainly been helpful when dealing with estimating future costs in costs budgeting.
By building these relationships, we and our clients know where one another are working, and therefore the best way of contacting each other. We have all probably had more Teams/Zoom calls than we care to count over the past few months, but they have been an excellent way of speaking to colleagues and clients, and sharing information. Others prefer to use emails and telephone to convey instructions, and we are adept at receiving instructions in various forms to ensure the work is completed.
During lockdown, we’ve all worked from home, some, if not all the time. That hasn’t stopped files being sent to us, as these can be collected either from the office or home to suit the Solicitor, or they can be sent electronically which is something we are seeing much more frequently with more firms going paperless. From a costing point of view, the method of sending the files may vary, but the outcome is the same.
Often, we work to Court deadlines, and good communication between Solicitor and Costs Lawyer/Draftsman is essential to ensure that Court deadlines are met, and the required documents are drafted. This is particularly the case when dealing with Costs Case Management Conferences, as we see a variety of requirements depending on the Court, as these range from just reference to CPR 3.12, to the drafting of a comparison through to requiring a breakdown of incurred costs. Knowing what the Court wants makes our job much easier.
Communication is also key when dealing with our opponents, whether that be when negotiating a Costs Budget or a Bill of Costs. They too are working remotely and being available to speak and negotiate costs is important, whilst also being professional but understanding of each other’s circumstances. The promptness of this enables cash flow to continue, and that is key to any business, but particularly over the past few months.
We as a department have missed the general costs discussions that go on in any office, but we’ve found ways to get round this and to reach each other, regardless of the homes we are sitting in. This way, we can keep up to date with case law, ask costs questions and also importantly, just check things are ok.
These are just a few advantages of good communication being shown by the Litigation department, and as this whole pandemic has shown us, it is good to talk and communicate with one-another.
For further information on how we can assist you with your legal costs, please contact Tom Brocklebank, Costs Lawyer and Head of Litigation here or on 01228 815394.