Act of Sederunt (Fees of Solicitors in the Sheriff Court) (Amendment) 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Act of Sederunt)

This Act of Sederunt amends Schedule 1 (general regulations) to the Act of Sederunt (Fees of Solicitors in the Sheriff Court) (Amendment and Further Provisions) 1993 (S.I. 1993/3080), the main aim being to increase (by about 16.2%) the expenses recoverable by a successful party. It does so in two complementary respects. First, it provides that certain fees shall no longer be chargeable, viz. fees for copying in normal circumstances and additions to accounts of sums to cover posts and incidents. Fees for ‘copying would be chargeable only in circumstances which the Auditor considered exceptional or where papers which required to be copied were unusually numerous. Secondly, to allow for these changes and for inflation, the Act of Sederunt increases the remaining fees payable to solicitors (and recoverable from opponents) by between 28 % and 43.3 %. The last increase was in the Act of Sederunt (Fees of Solicitors in the Sheriff Court) (Amendment) 1996 (S.I. 1996/236).

The Act of Sederunt also removes the requirement that a motion for additional expenses must be made not later than seven days after the date of an interlocutor disposing of expenses; introduces a block fee for work done before the commencement of an action; clarifies the entitlement of a solicitor to a fee for perusing the precognition or report of a skilled witness whether or not in the course of doing so the solicitor revises or adjusts that precognition or report; and revokes Chapters V (mercantile sequestration) and VI (executry business – intestate moveable succession) of Schedule 1.

The Act of Sederunt does not apply as respects work done, or outlays incurred, before it comes into force.