PLK & Ors SCCO Refs: 13080340, 12177963, 11775290, 11620036

​Appeal against inability to charge higher rates for deputies although the hourly rate had not been reviewed since 2010. Appeal allowed.

The issue for determination concerned the method of assessment of the hourly rates claimed by Deputies.  It was the applicants’ submission that the court’s current approach which, broadly speaking, relies on the application of the Guidelines Hourly Rates (‘GHR’) approved by the Costs Committee of the Civil Justice Council is, by 2020, incorrect and unjust.  Instead the assessment of COP work should be predicated on a more flexible exercise of the discretion conferred by CPR 44.3(3), whereby the GHR are utilised as merely a ‘starting point’ and not a ‘starting and end point’.

The Senior Court Costs Office confirmed that Court of Protection lawyers are entitled to claim increased rates. 

Read the full text of the judgment here