MRO Fee Markup Cap 25%

The Senior Courts Costs Office has determined that Medical Reporting Organisation fees are disbursements, not outsourced solicitors’ work, rejecting the long-applied Stringer comparison test. A 25% markup on expert fees represents the reasonable amount recoverable between parties.

Fees charged by a Medical Reporting Organisation for arranging and administering the procurement of medical evidence are properly characterised as a disbursement, not as outsourced solicitors’ profit costs. The correct test for assessing their reasonableness is therefore not a comparison with the hypothetical cost of a solicitor performing the same tasks. [57-60]
Commercial terms between a solicitor and a third-party provider, such as deferred payment or write-off facilities, do not constitute irrecoverable “funding costs”. Such terms are a legitimate feature of the service within a market where delayed reimbursement is inherent, reflecting the commercial relationship between the parties. [76-78, 85]
In assessing the reasonableness of a percentage-based fee charged by a service provider, the court will consider whether the percentage is justified by the overall service offered. The court may determine a maximum reasonable percentage where the evidence does not support the full percentage claimed, particularly where the charging model is based on macro-business calculations rather than case-specific factors. [125, 137]
The absence of detailed, time-recorded evidence from a service provider does not preclude the court from assessing the reasonableness of their fees. The court may adopt a broad, pragmatic approach to quantification, setting a recoverable percentage that reflects the value of the service while acknowledging the impracticality of a detailed deconstruction in every case. [121-122, 138]
Where a disbursement is charged as a global or aggregate fee without a time-based breakdown, the court may assess its reasonableness by reference to a percentage uplift on the underlying cost, provided this reflects a fair and proportionate charge for the service between the parties. A percentage uplift is to be applied to the entire expert’s invoice, including disbursements, for reasons of simplicity and practicality. [136-137]

The Senior Courts Costs Office has determined that Medical Reporting Organisation fees are disbursements, not outsourced solicitors’ work, rejecting the long-applied *Stringer* comparison test. A 25% markup on expert fees represents the reasonable amount recoverable between parties.

The Senior Courts Costs Office has determined that Medical Reporting Organisation fees are disbursements, not outsourced solicitors’ work, rejecting the long-applied Stringer comparison test. A 25% markup on expert fees represents the reasonable amount recoverable between parties.