'Barristers Costs are Ten Times Cheaper'
19 December 2005
The case of GE Capital Bank v Rushton & Jenking, in which judgment has recently been delivered, is believed to be the first case to reach the Court of Appeal in which a barrister has acted under the Public Access scheme. This recently introduced scheme allows barristers to act on direct instructions from a lay client.
Anthony Speaight QC, Chairman of the Bar Council's Access to the Bar Committee, said:
'The costs involved in this case have shown the clear public interest benefits of Public Access to the Bar in cases where solicitors are not required.
'GE, whose barrister was instructed by a solicitor, presented a claim for £68,082 costs of the appeal. By contrast, the costs summary of the defendants, who instructed their barrister directly, was in the sum of £6,400.
'Making every allowance for the fact that a client who acts directly will himself have to undertake some administrative work which a solicitor would do for him, this case demonstrates the genuine and considerable cost savings that can be achieved through instructing a barrister without a solicitor.
'The same thing was illustrated earlier this month in the Court of Appeal by the tax appeal against the Revenue of Andre Agassi: he used his tax consultant rather than a solicitor to instruct his barrister. The Senior Costs Judge, who was sitting as an assessor, indicated that in his experience a solicitor could well have charged 3 times more than the tax consultant.
'In his report on modernising civil justice Lord Woolf encouraged partial legal services. The Bar Council has actively encouraged this development, and hopes that more clients will realise the increasing range of cost-saving options which are now available from the Bar.'
