What are party/party costs
- Article
- 26 Sep 2017
Party/party costs are those legal costs which we can recover from the opposition. Our goal in every case is to recover as much as we possibly can from the opposition for their contribution to your legal costs and disbursements.
In fact in some case we recover 100% of the costs from the opposition which means that no amount is deducted from your claim for legal costs. As a general rule we would expect to recover at least 2/3rds of your legal costs from the opposition but often the percentage is higher. This is something which a lot of people overlook and which can make a big difference to how much you receive at the end of the case.
One of the main reasons we recover such a large percentage is because we keep costs down by running our cases as economically and efficiently as possible. One area where we find significant savings can be made is disbursements. Disbursements are expenses for things like medical reports and court filing fees. By keeping these to an absolute minimum we can help achieve a better bottom line.
One of the biggest disbursements in any case is barristers’ fees. Because we only use barristers for court hearings we can save you thousands of dollars here. In fact in most of our cases there are no counsel’s fees at all. Most of our competitors rely on barristers very heavily and other fees get added to your bill at the end. Because we specialise in these claims we don’t get barristers involved until near the end. These savings can be dramatic. I have seen cases where firms have incurred tens of thousands of dollars in counsel’s fees and the case hasn’t even been set down for hearing!
Remember legal fees are only one part of your total bill. With some solicitors what they spend on disbursements, including counsel’s fees, can even be more than the legal fees!
This is one area where we can save you thousands compared to most of our competitors.