Costs Draftsman

We have a new opportunity for a qualified Costs Draftsman/Costs Lawyer to join an award-winning firm of Solicitors based in Birmingham, West Midlands.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a well established practice, that specialises in legal aid cases, primarily dealing with housing association disputes, where you will be supporting a large team of fee earners.

Responsibilities:

• Drafting Inter-Partes and Legal Aid bills for assessment
• Sending bills to the paying party and following through assessment procedure to payment.
• Drafting replies to points of dispute
• Negotiating costs with the paying party.
• Lodging bills at Court and the Legal Aid Agency for assessment.
• Monitoring performance of external Costs Draftsman regarding turnaround times and work produced.
• Maintaining up to date excel spreadsheet of billing information.
• Ensuring prompt payment of finalised bills where payment is due from the opponent.
• Checking bills drafted by costs assistants
• Undertaking other clerical and administrative duties as may reasonably be required from time to time.

Requirements

• Qualified Costs Lawyer/Costs Draftsman
• Experience of drafting Inter-Partes and legal aid bills
• Experience of using CCMS to bill legal aid files
• Computer Literate
• High Level of numeracy and accuracy when dealing with figures.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Knowledge of Excel, Word and Outlook
• Willing to learn new skills
• Quick learner
• Good administrative background with experience of being able to manage and prioritise own workloads.

Desirable knowledge and experience of:

• Legal Aid Agency rules for billing and costing of publicly funded files.
• Court rules for lodging bills.
• An understanding of the rules governing Inter-Parte bill preparation.
• Court costs assessment procedures
• Working in a publicly funded organisation.

Salary:

• £25,000 to £30,000 dependent on experience plus a performance-related bonus scheme
• Hours of Work: 9.00 am to 5.00 PM with 1 hour for lunch

If you are interested in the role and would like to find out more, please click below to apply today!