Interim Statute Bills And CFAs, Can They Co-Exist? | Court of Appeal Decision

“Mr Williams’ attempted reliance on “subject matter” was one of a number of different ways in which he sought to argue that, even if he was stuck with the principle of finality noted above, he could still find a way round the difficulties by endeavouring to limit that which was final and complete. Accordingly, at one point, he argued that the invoices were final “in respect of the things which have been billed”. That submission only has to be considered for a moment before its fundamental flaw becomes apparent. His proposition would allow a solicitor to render what he said was an interim statute bill, because it was final in respect of the things included within it (including, say, 50 hours work by the partner in March 2024), but would allow that solicitor to render a later interim statute bill for another 20 hours worked by that partner during March 2024, which had previously been overlooked. The first invoice would be final in respect of the 50 hours that it billed; the second invoice would be final for the additional 20 hours it billed during the same period. Whilst this would mean that the first bill was neither final nor complete, on this hypothesis, that would not matter.

“In my view, that is the complete antithesis of an interim statutory bill. The advantages of an interim statutory bill, in terms of certainty and clarity, arise out of the fact that it cannot be revisited. It is therefore impossible to qualify the finality and completeness of an interim statutory bill; as soon as you do, it ceases to be an interim statutory bill.” [55-56]

Moving on to the broader implications, Lord Justice Coulson noted the tension between the Solicitors Act 1974 and modern CFA arrangements:

“Mr Williams’ opening oral submission was to the effect that this area of law had become “blinded by its own specialism”, and that highly technical arguments were blurring the straightforward resolution of these issues. He said that this explained the surge in the number of disputes arising under s.70.

“In my view, that submission neatly avoided the reality of what was happening here. In an ordinary case, a consumer of services may have up to six years to pursue claims against the services provider. But in the case of solicitors, s.70 drastically truncates that right: it offers a highly technical form of protection to solicitors by limiting the period of challenge to one year after the bill has been paid. That was not a problem in the past, because solicitors’ bills were usually rendered at the end of their work. Now solicitors sensibly seek interim payments, but they still want the protection of s.70, even under CFAs. As the authorities demonstrate, they make uneasy bedfellows.” [70-71]

In conclusion, Lord Justice Coulson dismissed the appeal, finding that the invoices issued under the CFA could not be considered interim statutory bills.