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Professional Deputies and Court of Protection practitioners will no doubt be aware of the recent case of PLK & Others.
Maters Whalan held that an increase in the guideline hourly rates by 20% was to be regarded as prima facie reasonable and he went as far as to provide a table of increased hourly rates for use by the assessing Costs Officer.
However, it is generally considered that the Costs Officers at the SCCO are not applying these new rates prior to the date of Master Whalan’s judgment despite his explicit instructions to do so at paragraph 35 of his judgment:
“this approach can be adopted immediately and is applicable to all outstanding bills, regardless of whether the period is 2018, 2019 or 2020 or subsequently”.
It is understood that such provisional assessments are currently being appealed and we will update you once these appeals have been heard.
It is also understood that Rebecca Sparrow and Russell Caller of the Professional Deputies Forum will be meeting with the SCCO to discuss this issue amongst others and are inviting Professional Deputies to get in touch with any issues they would like raised.
For more information on PLK & Others or to discuss Court of Protection Costs generally please contact us.
