Welcome

Veritas Professional Legal Services provides full legal costing services, mainly for Solicitors and businesses in England & Wales. Please take the time to peruse this website and, if you find it of interest, do not hesitate to contact us. You will find us polite, professional and, most of all, helpful.

Legal Costs

Let VERITAS be your PILOTS

The arena of Legal Costs has become increasing complex and difficult and yet the subject is too important to you and your business to risk getting it wrong.

With new rules and interpretations continually appearing it doesn't look like it will get any easier any time soon.

Ship Captains, as good as they are, do not navigate their vessels into unfamiliar or tricky harbours.

They use Pilots who are local experts fully trained in the treacherous waters around them. Pilots are the specialists in their area.

Legal costs is no different, the chances of winging it are long gone, you need professional local expertise if you are to maximise your rights to costs and reduce the risk to acceptable levels. The drafting of legal bills can be a minefield, rules frequently change and new interpretations abound.

By employing experts you can relax and devote your time to what really matters to you, serving your clients.

Let VERITAS be your PILOTS

Some of the Case Types we handle

Care Claims - Catastrophic Injuries - Civil Litigation - Clinical Negligence - Commercial - Contentious Probate - Court of Protection - Crime - Defamation - Family - Group Litigation - Housing - Industrial Disease - Judicial Review - Legal Aid - Litigant in Person - Local Authority - Military - Personal Injury - Professional Negligence

Care Claims

Veritas regularly deals with Care Claims and understands the many nuances of them.

It is perhaps worth noting that we also understand that there are often specific confidentiality issues or requirements and can reassure you that we treat such matters with the utmost of care.

Care Claims - Legal Aid As with ALL legal aid billing we do we defer payment until you receive yours and limit our charges to the amount as assessed by the LAA so that you will never be left "out of pocket" due to our charges For full information on our legal aid work please flip to the Legal aid tab.

Care Claims - Privately Funded In addition to all the legal costs services we at Veritas supply, we can provide full or short form billing and are fully cognisant of the 1/5th rule. If it is an own client bill you require it may give your client reassurance that your bill has been produced by a separate specialist company who has reviewed all the records.

Catastrophic Injuries

Substantial cases, such as these, require a great deal of expertise. Often they can last longer than anyone would wish and even after the dust has settled the issue of costs, due to the complexities and time taken, can be as thorny as the case itself.

When it does come to costs you need to keep your guard up and be wary of the opposition trying to take advantage, they will take any they can when the stakes are so high. By instructing a Professional Costs firm such as Veritas you can be shielded from the many arguments that will be thrown at you and be confident that experienced and qualified hands are there to support you.

It is also an advantage to show that you have instructed a Professional firm, made up of professionals, to deal with your case and to produce your documentation (especially bills).

We recommend, especially during long and substantial cases, even if you do not engage us, that you seek professional costs advice before producing ANY costs related documents. Failure in this regard can cost you dear.

For our full range of services please select What we do at the top of this page. Recent Cost Changes Because we have a bespoke Data Driven I.T. system, we can breakdown the costs in a variety of ways to match your own client arrangements and the new budgetary requirements. If you have any queries with this regard just ask!

Civil Litigation

For more information on P.I. please read the Personal Injury tab.

This seemingly catchall subject can include:-

Defective equipment, PPI, contractual disputes, consumer protection, debt, RTA, slip/trip, employer's liability, public liability, occupier's liability,etc.

Whether you require fixed costs advice, budgeting, billing or advocacy we can help. This applies to both pre and post 1st April 2013 issued claims.

Veritas is a FULLY Independent Legal Costs company, we are NOT a firm of Solicitors (or owned by one) and we ONLY deal with Costs. Your private company knowledge and practices are, and will, remain confidential.

You will find us Professional, competitive and worthy representatives of your firm. Customer loyalty is key to our success, we gain that by working hard for our clients.

We recommend, even if you do not engage us, that you seek professional costs advice before producing ANY costs related documents. Failure in this regard can cost you dear. Recent Cost Changes There are some interesting nuances to the recent changes. With the new costs rules we find we are, by necessity, becoming involved with cases at an early stage. Previously it was not uncommon for us to first see a case after its conclusion. Now, because of the many rule changes and new requirements, we are often needed to advise and produce documentation during the case. From our point of view, though this work is more spread out and can take longer for us to get paid (just as you often do) it is not such a bad thing. It gives us the opportunity to utilise our professional knowledge, help guide clients and prevent major errors that can negatively impact on your claims. Previously we sometimes wished we had seen (cost related) matters earlier and now we do .

At Veritas all cases are dealt with by Professionals who are Legally qualified and experienced.

Clinical Negligence

Not only can Clinical Negligence claims be quite distressing, they are often more difficult to run and win (e.g. the Bolam test). The difficulties don't cease after the settlement of damages as they also provide their own set of problems when it comes to the subject of costs. Whilst Veritas covers all costs related aspects of this type of work we feel it worth adding that it is the area of billing and negotiation where special care needs to be taken.

We have recently detected an increasing number of spurious arguments being presented by opposing parties in order to sway the costs more in their favour. We are proud to say that, due to our Legal background, we have recently been successful in navigating our clients through these arguments towards better results. Had our opponents been up against a cost company lacking a full professional service without the proper ability to legally interpret these arguments we feel confident that poorer settlements could have resulted.

Although it is difficult, without full evidence to confirm that this is definitively the case, we feel that the prevalence of so many "legally wrong" arguments must surely be the result of a number of them "getting past" the more naive.

Don't take your eye off the ball in extra time - You deserve proper recompense for this difficult work.

Commercial

Services to Solicitors For Solicitors we can, for example, prepare estimates or Bills for inter parties or own clients.

One useful additional benefit in doing this is that you are able to reassure your clients that the case has been checked and bill produced by a third party.

You may thus be able to to head off any potential client concern of over the veracity of your billing process which will assist in maintaining client loyalty and keeping complaints to a minimum.

Services to Businesses Many companies presented with legal bills are not aware that there are complex rules determining what is chargable and sometimes even limiting the rate such charges. Those rules are so complex and detailed that specialist companies, such as ourselves, exist to assess the costs of legal cases.

For businesses we can check and challenge any legal bills you receive (regardless of whether you actually went to court) and fully advise on them.

This applies to any legal bills you receive from opponent Solicitors, your own Solicitor and Counsel fees.

If you have concerns over a recent legal bill we will give it the once over for you, free of charge and then suggest the optimal way forward. If we believe the bill to be reasonable and unlikely to gain ground on a challenge we will tell you so. If, however, we feel that there is some ground to be made then we will advise on how we can help and offer reasonable terms to act for you. We offer the following assurances:

• We will not charge you unless an overall saving is made.


• Our charges will always be less than the savings made.

Contentious Probate

This difficult and often fraught area can produce unique problems with regards to costs and to the apportionments of such.

Veritas is a Professional firm where cases are ONLY dealt with by fully qualified professionals.

Whether the final bill is charged to the estate or against an opposing party, Veritas can assess the case and produce all the documentation required.

Such bills are generally assessed by the SCCO where, incidentally, each of our founders have appeared as advocates.

Where an SCCO assessment is made, Veritas will limit its own costs to only that which the SCCO assesses. This gives you the assurance that we will not leave you "out of pocket".

In order to assist you further, Veritas will defer its own costs until your receive your costs.

Where costs are paid by an estate it is often useful for or clients to be able show to their bill has been assessed and produced by a separate Professional specialist Costs company that has diligently gone through all the case documentation.

Our bespoke I.T. system allows us to breakdown costs using a variety of criteria which may also assist you in showing how your costs have accrued or been apportioned.

Court of Protection

We at Veritas have good experience with this type of work. Our bespoke I.T. system allows to to be able to maintain and produce the yearly bills that are often required in such cases.

Each of our founders have appeared as advocates at the SCCO and have a good working knowledge of their practices and procedures. As such we would hope that our billing methods would be well received.

In the same way as we do for Legal aid cases, Veritas will defer its own costs until your payment is assessed and paid.

Again, as with our Legal Aid service, Veritas will limit its own costs to that which the SCCO assesses leaving you with the assurance that we will not leave you "out of pocket".

Crime

It is well known that crime doesn't pay.

It is equally well known it doesn't pay for Legal Practitioners either! .

That said, Veritas is experienced with all aspects of criminal costs work ranging from Legal Aid to privately funded work - from simple attendances through to Judicial review.

Veritas charges competitively for all Legally Aided cases.

Please flip to the Legal aid panel for information if this is of interest to you.

Defamation

It is common ground that Defamation cases require substantial degrees of Legal expertise and yet, when it comes to costs, it is a bone of contention that such expertise, in such amounts was ever required. Paradoxes like these are every day bread and butter to Professional Costs firms. To properly deal with such arguments requires, unsurprisingly, a good degree of legal expertise.

Veritas offers this level of service without breaking the bank. Unlike many of our competitors we remain FULLY independent and cases are only dealt with by Legally qualified staff with experience in major cases.

If you have such a case ongoing at the moment, before any major costs decisions are taken, please contact us for some informal free advice and let us demonstrate who helpful we can be.

We do recommend, especially during long and substantial cases, even if you do not engage us, that you seek professional costs advice before producing ANY costs related documents.

Failure in this regard can cost you dear.

Family

Family - Legal Aid If you are still surviving the "death by a thousand cuts" attack on this aspect of Legal Aid we will do our best not to make it any worse.

Although many family cases have be heavily pruned from the Legal Aid Scheme, as with ALL our Legal Aid billing we defer payment until you receive yours and will limit our charges to the amount as assessed by the LAA thus ensuring you will not be left "out of pocket" due to our charges

For full information on our legal aid work please read the Legal aid tab.

Family - Privately Funded Veritas provides all the legal costs services for all aspects of Family matters including short form billing or estimates for ancillary relief. We also know how to properly take into account the 1/5th rule.

If it is an own client bill you require it may give your client reassurance that your bill has been produced by a separate specialist company who has reviewed all the records.

Group Litigation

This is one of the hardest case types to manage and is one that often mushrooms out of all proportion to that which was initially envisaged. Dealing with so many parties, keeping them all in line, keeping your own documentation up to date is extremely challenging to say the least.

With the latest rules on cost budgeting, it has become even more difficult in this regard it is vital that you use Costs specialist at an early stage. If you don't, you risk losing substantial amounts.

Veritas is adept at these kinds of cases with the additional benefit that, by using us early on in the case we can assess issues such as retainers and strategy. We can help to spot early problems with case management or documentation and help to resolve any issue before they become too serious.

But spare a thought for the costs draftsman. It is, without doubt, the hardest case type one can meet. With so many parties involved the costs issues can rapidly become as exponential problem where apportionment is concerned.

For example say there are just 4 parties and one simple phone call was made by you. Is that split equally between the 4? -is it 3 because by then one had dropped out? was it unique to just one or two parties solely? - simple enough, to a degree, but before you can consider that one phone call you would have to answer so many questions (who was the phone call to / why / which parties were involved at that stage for that subject on so on). Now expand that problem to yet more parties with a case that perhaps went on for a number of years and then you start to fully appreciate the magnitude of the problem. Finally how do you then produce a bill which properly reflects each party's costs?

We feel that when faced with such a problem there is a risk that some may "fudge" the billing process to a varying degree. To be honest they are left with little choice for to stand a chance off doing the job properly (thus reducing challenge opportunities) you need two things. You need, quite frankly, "Costs Geeks" and you need an I.T. system written specifically to handle apportionment comprehensively. Veritas has both.

If you are really interested in this, we have dedicated a page to apportionment - or better still just contact us and assess our capabilities for yourself. Whatever you decide, we recommend that, even if you do not instruct us, you seek professional costs advice before producing ANY costs related documents. Failure in this regard may well be painful.

Housing Disputes/Disrepair

Whether Legally Aided, covered by a CFA or by private retainer (or even a mixture of the three) we can provide all the Legal Cost related services you could require for this type of case.

It is not that unusual for this type of claim to also involve other elements, such as personal injury or multi parties.

We have considerable experience of these matters, are experienced at handling multi-aspect claims and are well versed in separating all the issues out both physically (as per billing) and legally (with regards to the issues).

For more details of Legal Aid please read the Legal aid panel within this section.

For more details about privately funded work please select the "What We Do" menu option at the top of this page.

We would always advise that you, at the earliest stage possible, seek professional costs advice before producing ANY costs related documents.

Industrial Disease

We are fully versed in handling cases of Mesothelioma, noise induced hearing loss and other cases of industrial disease. It is fair to say that no two cases are alike and complexities can easily increase even with what, on the face of it, seems a simple case.

Such claims can often involve multiple parties, be very complex and sometimes even apportionment is required which adds a whole new level of complexity.

We have considerable experience with Industrial Disease claims and have tailor made processes to assist us in correlating the data and being able to present it in a logical and understandable form.

You, being in charge of the case, need to be able to aver, with confidence, that your claim and the calculations are correct and yet, without religiously going through all the papers and applying a "Legal Cost Expert's head" you will not be able to tell how accurate you or anyone else have been.

This means that when you do instruct a costs firm to do this kind of work what you need most is trust. Trust that they have the internal processes to cope with such complex cases and trust in the professionalism of those that handle your case. Veritas is called Veritas Professional for a reason, we do not assign juniors or unqualified people to do cost draftsman work, we unfortunately cannot say that is true for all costing firms.

We also have our own tailor made bespoke costing system which allows us to maintain accuracy and keep complex data in order.

Judicial Review

Although rare, when you are involved in Judicial Review you are up against, one might argue, the proverbial bottomless pit of state authority.

Often cost and principle compete for priority and time is always an issue.

Veritas has handled Judicial review cases that have been assessed by the SCCO. Indeed both of our founders have experience representing their clients at the SCCO.

For cases involving Judicial Review you can be assured of experienced and professional hands to help you navigate through the costs process.

As with other SCCO assessed cases Veritas limits their Bill fees to those which have been assessed so you will not have to face the situation where you might have to top up from your own resources.

Legal Aid

You can regard us as one-stop-shop for ALL Legal aid issues.

We are acutely conscious of the limitations on recompense for this type of work and have produced a fee structure that sees us in regular demand. The important points of our legal aid service are:-

We prepare Bills to be assessed by the court

We work with the Legal Aid Agency CCMS claim system, can upload your files and see your claim safely through the process

We prepare Claim 1s and 1As to be assessed by the LAA

We prepare claims for fixed costs and charge a reasonable single fixed fee for this work.

We prepare all cost related documentation for all types of Legal Aid Cases

We can also handle mixed Legal Aid/inter partes work and can provide 6 column bills with intricate breakdowns.

We offer a fair charging structure:

For assessed claims we limit our fees to be NO MORE THAN that assessed by the court. Therefore, unlike some of our competitors, we do not eat into your recovery. We are also very aware of the necessity to maintain a high percentage of recovery and have a strong reputation for providing accurate bills.

For fixed cost work we charge fixed fees so you know how much you will pay before the work is done. These fees are set at reasonable amounts because, let's face it, we want to do all your cost related work.

Litigant in Person

If you are a litigant in person (LIP) and have stumbled upon this website then the first advice we can offer is for you to seek advice.

Many Solicitors will offer an initial consultation without charge (ask them first) and the Citizens Advice Bureau is always worthy of consideration.

If you are looking for a Solicitor we may be able to help.

Because our work involves dealing with a great number of cases from a large bank of Solicitors we are uniquely placed to recommend a firm within your locality who are regularly successful with your type of claim.

We do not take fees or commission or any other pecuniary benefit from our recommendations.

If you are an LIP and have already done some work you may not know that you can claim for your time and expenses (should you be awarded costs at court). This also means that, when considering any settlement in your favour, any offer to you should reflect this. We would also add that the amounts fall well short of that which a legal professional would be allowed.

If you have had an Adverse Costs Order (court awarded costs against you), and are facing a bill from the other side then we may be able to help. Whilst we do not actively seek this kind of work from LIPs we are a professional firm and are not in the habit of turning people away.

Local Authority

We can act for all public bodies/authorities.

Whether your own authority self insures, has a large legal department or not we can help.

Even with the biggest departments expert experience and knowledge of certain cost related matters can often be lacking. In addition, because of holiday and sick leave authorities can often be temporarily left short of the staff or expertise they require at cetain times of the year.

No matter what cost related issue you are dealing with, we at Veritas can help.

Military Injuries & Litigation

In this specialist area of the law you are usually up against the government (in one form or another) where causation and liability are generally the big issues. One could argue that the playing field is tilted against you in that the government has "deep pockets" and you may be faced with a client of limited means torn between fighting for their country and then suing it!

We do understand that these cases require an arguably greater responsibility from you and that client handling can often be stressful. Issues not apparently directly related to the case can sometimes take on a life of their own.

We also understand that there are potential confidentiality issues that go beyond those of a normal case. Client or regiment identity, for example, might seem irrelevant to many but may be hugely damaging (to say the least) should such information slip out erroneously.

We can assure you that Veritas has experience of such cases and experience of the importance of confidentiality with this regard. We treat such matters both seriously and professionally and would be honoured should you decide to instruct us.

We do however recommend, especially for substantial cases, even if you do not engage us, that you seek professional costs advice before producing ANY costs related documents.

Failing to do so could be at your expense.

Personal Injury

Although these cases are certainly not rare it is likely true that no two are ever the same. Each case is unique and many are difficult to run, often made more so by the conduct of the opposing side.

This area of the Law has undergone many changes especially with regards to costs. In an effort to reduce costs the government have simplified the process by “let’s face it” making it even more complex and, it seems, more labour intensive! It is now likely that it will take years before all the nuances are commonly known and the kinks have been worked out. It is likely that satellite litigation will follow and new precedents will be set.

As a firm specialising in Legal Costs it is our job to stay apprised of all of the changes and “current thinking”.

We suggest that you remain wary and to not always assume that fixed costs apply in every low to medium value case.

If you have any doubt about your case then contact us for guidance, the earlier the better, before it is too late!

Our advice is free to existing clients and it does not take much to become one so please don’t take the risk of missing out.

Even if you do not seek our advice please don’t let it stop you from seeking any!
Make sure you are being paid for all the work you have done – don’t let them add insult to injury.

Professional Negligence

As you no doubt know Professional Negligence claims are often difficult to run and maintain with higher standards required all round. The battle however doesn't end once the case is settled but generally resumes anew once costs are being considered/assessed.

Veritas covers all costs related aspects of this work.

We also feel that for cases of Professional Negligence it is a tactical advantage to be supported by a respected Professional Legal Costs company.

You need people representing you that not only know what they are talking about but ones that have the full respect of the opposing side. Be represented by a firm you can be confident and proud of and be sure that your ground has just become firmer because of it.

We have noted that it is a current trend for opposing sides to produce some quite poor legal arguments to support their views of costs. Maybe the trend is increasing because it gets them somewhere with others. Poor legal arguments will gain them no ground when dealing with Veritas. We represent our clients only with legally qualified and experienced staff.

The last place corners should be cut is when it is time to assess your own recompense for the difficult work you have done. Veritas understands this and yet remains competitive regards its own charging policy to you.