Explanatory note

This Order amends the Civil Legal Services (Remuneration) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 (“the 2015 Order”). The primary purpose of this amending Order is to make technical amendments to correct a number of errors and omissions in the 2015 Order. These changes are of a minor nature, including amendments to table headings, extending the references to “letters” to include “emails” in appropriate contexts, and the corrections of a reference to paying letters and phone calls from a “per hour” basis to a “per item basis”.

The 2015 Order does not make explicit references to all of the various rates of payment for travel, as applicable to the type of representative across the various types of proceedings. The amendments make provision for the payment of travel time and mileage in all relevant proceedings, replicating the payments currently made to representatives. In addition, starting points from which travel may be claimed by representatives are inserted into Part 1 of Schedules 3 and 4. Again this replicates how payments are currently made.

In addition to those amendments to clarify the current payments, a new Table 9 in Part 4 of Schedule 4 to the 2015 Order has been added. This is to highlight and reflect those payments that are currently being paid to a solicitor in certain County Court proceedings when proceedings have been withdrawn, abandoned or discontinued, where there is a full certificate in force.

The amending Order introduces two changes. This first intends to improve the arrangements for a solicitor claiming an interim disbursement payment for an expert witness report. The amendments are to Article 6. At present, one solicitor must firstly discharge a liability of over £500, before he or she can make a claim. The amendments make it so that when that a liability has been incurred as a result of a joint instruction of an expert and the total cost of those instructing exceeds £500, a solicitor may make a claim for an interim disbursement. The claim may be made when the liability has been incurred as opposed to it being discharged.

The second change is to facilitate the ability of counsel to submit their claim for costs and interim costs directly. These amendments are to Articles 6, 8 and 9.

The Order comes into operation on the 1st July 2019.