Court of Protection Ebill

No tricks – it’s all treats as a new pilot starts in the Senior Court Costs Office with the introduction of electronic bills in Court of Protection Cases.  From the 1^st November 2022 to 28^th April 2023 professional deputies may file their general management bills and other applications in electronic spreadsheet form where the relevant authority has been obtained from the Court of Protection.

We’re on standby to prepare electronic bills of costs from the 1^st November 2022.  The new form was devised by a working group chaired by Costs Judge Colum Leonard following a consultation between 1 February and 3 May 2022.  Should the pilot be successful it is envisaged that the use of electronic bills will be permitted when the pilot ends.

What does this mean for professional deputies?

• The provisional assessment will be turned around faster
• No more time-consuming recalculations of COP bills as the spreadsheet does this automatically
• Greater transparency with the provision of assets listed in the e-bill
• Easier for the costs officers to compare costs estimates from the OPG 105 data
• Remarks and comments from the costs officers will be legible
• A reduction in post assessment processing as the bill includes the final costs certificate

What’s changing?

Ultimately the presentation of the costs which will mean more work for the costs drafting team to add line by line detail of the work carried out the deputy.  There is now a requirement for an activity code to be added to every transaction – but this in turn will lead to costs officers being able to filter on activities by fee earner and by party.

There will be colour coding in the new electronic bill of costs which will allow the costs officer to detail their assessment line by line and to allow a side-by-side comparison to see what was claimed and what has been allowed.

If you would like to discuss how the impact of the new introduction will impact, you and your team please get in touch. Our training team is on standby to help you through the next change in the assessment of Court of Protection costs.

To contact our training team to arrange your COP ebill training please contact Paul Cruickshanks on 01733 350 880 or email paul.cruickshanks@aandmbacon.co.uk

Paul Cruickshanks, Head of Court of Protection, A&M Bacon Ltd

01.11.22