Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Discounted CFAs: interim invoices are not statute bills; EWCA in Signature Litigation v Ivanishvili on Solicitors Act 1974 s 70 assessments and SRA client money (England and Wales)

Published on: 05 September 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Dispute Resolution expert

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Signature Litigation LLP v Ivanishvili [2024] EWCA Civ 901

What are the practical implications of this case?

The Court of Appeal used this case to restate a well-known worry: as Lord Justice Coulson observed at [22], the 1974 Act has been widely criticised for not being updated to reflect modern practice. When the SA 1974 came into force, conditional fee agreements (CFAs) were unlawful, and retainers were largely based on an ‘entire contract’ model, allowing costs to be fully quantified for any period while litigation was ongoing. That is not the position with conditional fee retainers, where the total costs payable (covering all additional liabilities) cannot be fixed until the litigation has concluded. Accordingly, solicitors should note that under any CFA—even a ‘discounted CFA’—interim invoices will not be final statute bills if an additional fee is intended to be added to that invoice once the case ends. In practical terms, this means an interim bill, even if presented and paid, may not be final for a considerable time, potentially years, until the conclusion of the proceedings and the assessment of any further liabilities...

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