Costs lawyers framework extended for 12 months

The Adverse Costs and Recovery of Costs panel has been extended for a further year ahead of a re-tender exercise in Spring 2016.

The Panel – which is split into two lots for high value (£75,000+) or complex cases and another for low value or routine cases – was first established by the Office for Government Commerce in 2007, re-tendered in 2012, and had been set to expire this month (June).

The scope of the agreement includes the provision of law costs consultancy and negotiation, law cost estimates and statement of costs, advocacy, instructing counsel, law cost advice and the preparation of bills of costs, points of dispute and replies.

A spokesperson for the Crown Commercial Service, which now has responsibility for the management of the frameworks, said: “A legal extension of the agreement has been put into place to enable us to commence and complete renewal proceedings, in conjunction with customer stakeholders, by spring 2016.”

Some organisations on the panel have expressed concern that the framework is not well known amongst potential customers of the panel.  “The use of the panel is an effective means of reducing legal costs and helping to ensure that departments and councils stay within their budgets," said Jessica Swannell, costs lawyer at A&M Bacon. "Unfortunately there are many Central Government Departments and Local Councils that do not know of the existence of this framework agreement which all Central and Local Government Departments should be using in relation to legal costs."

The Crown Commercial Service denied that the framework lacked profile. “We encourage suppliers to promote the benefits of the framework to new and existing local government customers,” its spokeswoman said. “The agreement is also promoted via our newsletters and full details of the agreement are on our website at http://ccs-agreements.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/contracts/rm1675.”