Martyn Griffiths successful in striking out a claim for a Solicitors Act assessment heard by Costs Judge Rowley

Martyn Griffiths has been successful in striking out a claim for a Solicitors Act assessment heard by Costs Judge Rowley. Martyn was instructed for the successful Defendant by Ged Courtney of Kain Knight. The judgment makes interesting reading for four reasons:

• The distinction drawn by the Judge between the formalities required of a statute bill under s.69 and s.70 of the Act respectively.
• The Judge’s comments confining his own previous decision in Potts v Amanda Cunliffe Solicitors to its own facts. In that case the Judge had found that previous email communication between the solicitor and client was sufficient to demonstrate consent to the delivery of statute bills by email.
• The judgment addresses the question of when a solicitor’s bill has been paid in the context of a signed authority by the client consenting to the solicitor making a deduction from the client’s damages.
• The Judge’s decision to strike out the claim by reason of the absence of special circumstances.

Click here to read the judgment in full.