The Issues:

The Claimant suffered an RTA injury in 2015 and successfully recovered damages. His solicitors deducted a 25% success fee plus a £198.75 ATE premium (totalling £1,086.25) from his general damages of £3,500.00. The claimant instructed new solicitors to challenge the deductions made from damages by his former solicitors.

The Claimant did not have a full copy of his file. Two years after he had paid his solicitor’s bill he did not commence detailed assessment proceedings but instead applied to the court for disclosure Orders pursuant to section 68 of the Solicitors Act 1974 and/or the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court over Solicitors/s.7(9) Data Protection Act 1998. It was common ground that the claimant was entitled to copies of any papers for which he had been billed. The issues were:

1. what should he pay for the copies - 10p/25p per sheet, or an hourly rate for sifting the file
2. could he have copies of the solicitor’s peripheral papers (agreements with medical agencies, ATE providers, and other documents) for which the client had not been billed and which did not belong to the client.