The Guidance Notes on Precedent H includes the following work as not to be included when preparing a costs budget:
“Assembling and/or copying the trial bundle (this is not fee earners’ work.)”
Why is extensive work therefore routinely claimed for preparing trial bundles? Cleary careful thought needs to be given as to what to include, but the time putting it together is not chargeable.
Without actually tackling whether it is fee earner work, it is worth noting two things:
(1) Guidance notes are not the law
and
(2) PTR says: Preparation of updated costs budgets and reviewing opponent’s budget – The point being that accuracy of the notes is debatable
Iliffe & Feltham. Potential costs penalties for not spending time getting the trial bundle right! Whilst the copying and perhaps paginating is not recoverable, the rest of the very important work is.
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2015/715.html
Answer = ‘Preparing’ vs ‘Assembling/Copying’.
This has been in my PoDs since the week those Guidance Notes came out. Unfortunately, the Court don’t take a blind bit of notice at provisional assessment, so it doesn’t matter.
In addition to time for deciding what to put into the trial bundle fee earner work also includes checking and, if necessary correcting and updating the trial bundle. It is essential to make sure that pages are all in the right order, correctly numbered and copied clearly?
Manchester CC RCJ has just confirmed in an assessment, that paginating and preparing bundles, is NOT fee earner work