Legal Practitioners Act 1981

The Supreme Court may—

on the application of a client for an adjudication of the whole or any part of legal costs; or

on the application of a third party payer for an adjudication of the whole or any part of legal costs payable by the third party payer, adjudicate and settle the bill for those costs.

An application for an adjudication of costs may be made even if the legal costs have been wholly or partly paid.

If any legal costs have been paid without a bill, the client or third party payer may nevertheless apply for an adjudication.

An application by a client or third party payer for an adjudication of costs under this clause must be made within 6 months after—

the bill was given or the request for payment was made to the client or third party payer; or

the costs were paid if neither a bill was given nor a request was made.

However, an application that is made out of time, otherwise than by—

a sophisticated client; or

a third party payer who would be a sophisticated client if the third party payer were a client of the law practice concerned, may be dealt with by the Supreme Court if the Court, on application by the client or third party payer who made the application for adjudication, determines, after having regard to the delay and the reasons for the delay, that it is just and fair for the application for adjudication to be dealt with after the 6 month period.

If the third party payer is a non‑associated third party payer, the law practice must provide the third party payer, on the written request of the third party payer, with sufficient information to allow the third party payer to consider making, and if thought fit to make, an application for an adjudication of costs under this clause.

If there is an associated third party payer for a client of a law practice—

nothing in this clause prevents—

the client from making 1 or more applications for adjudication under this clause in relation to costs for which the client is solely liable;

the associated third party payer from making 1 or more applications for adjudication under this clause in relation to costs for which the associated third party payer is solely liable, and those applications may be made by them at the same time or at different times and may be dealt with jointly or separately; and

the client or the associated third party payer—

may participate in the adjudication of costs process where the other of them makes an application for adjudication under this clause in relation to costs for which they are both liable; and

is taken to be a party to the adjudication and is bound by the adjudication; and

the law practice is taken to be a party to the adjudication and is bound by the adjudication.

If there is a non‑associated third party payer for a client of a law practice—

nothing in this clause prevents—

the client from making 1 or more applications for adjudication under this clause in relation to costs for which the client is liable;

the non‑associated third party payer from making 1 or more applications for adjudication under this clause in relation to costs for which the non‑associated third party payer is liable, and those applications may be made by them at the same time or at different times but must be dealt with separately; and

the client—

may participate in the adjudication of costs process where the non‑associated third party payer makes an application for adjudication under this clause in relation to the legal costs for which the non‑associated third party payer is liable; and

is taken to be a party to the adjudication and is bound by the adjudication; and

despite any other provision of this Part, the adjudication of the costs payable by the non‑associated third party payer does not affect the amount of legal costs payable by the client to the law practice.

In this clause—

an executor or administrator of a client;

a trustee of the estate of a client;

an executor or administrator of a third party payer;

a trustee of the estate of a third party payer.