Supreme Court Taxing Office

 

Practice Direction

2006 No. 1

 

The Legal Aid for Crown Court Proceedings (Costs) Rules (Northern Ireland) 2005

 

Applications for payment in Very High Cost Case Cases under Rule 16

 

The Office requires the solicitors and Counsel applying for the payment of their costs and disbursements to lodge in the Office:-

 

a) in the case of Solicitors:-

 

1) a copy of each certificate and variation thereof received from the Legal Services Commission

 

2)  Copies of all periodic reports and projections provided to the Legal Services Commission under Rule 16(4).

 

3)  A claim completed in accordance with Rule 7 (3), making a clear distinction between Solicitors work and work done by an Apprentice/Legal Executive. The Office will accept a submission on the claim form settled by the Commission or in a similar layout.

 

4)      A report from Junior or Senior Counsel or the Advocate or in the absence of same a full report by the member of the Solicitor’s staff handling the case sufficient to show the course of the preparation and highlight the difficulties in the case

 

5)      Where disbursements have been incurred a separate list of disbursements showing the date each was incurred and accompanied by all invoices for each.

 

6)      The claim must be accompanied by a note of the VAT registration number of the firm

 

 

The case must be lodged within three months of the conclusion of the case.  Where this is not done then an application to the Taxing Master, stating the reasons for the delay should be made under Rule 19 before the application for payment is lodged.

 

b) in the case of Counsel and Advocates

 

1)  Junior and Senior Counsel and Advocates must each submit their claim in accordance with Rule 10. The Office will accept a submission on the claim form settled by the Commission or in a similar layout.

 

2)  A report from (as appropriate) Junior Counsel, Senior Counsel, the Advocate sufficient to show the course of the preparation and highlight the difficulties in the case

 

3)  The claim must be accompanied by a note of the representative’s VAT registration number where the representative is registered for VAT

 

The case must be lodged within three months of the conclusion of the case or three months from receipt of copy certificate. Where this is not done then an application to the Taxing Master, stating the reasons for the delay should be made under Rule 19 before the application for payment is lodged.

 

Dated this 8th May 2006.

 

 

J CHRISTOPHER NAPIER

MASTER (TAXING OFFICE)