A decision is awaited concerning the new bill of costs format, currently being piloted (under Practice Direction 51L), and when use of this will become mandatory in the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO). The CPRC, at its October 2015 meeting, stated that more information was required before a decision could be made about making use of the new format mandatory and agreed to an extension of the voluntary pilot until October 2016.
In his keynote address at the Law Society's Civil Litigation Conference on 21 April 2016, Lord Justice Jackson referred to the criticisms received of the draft proposed new format, which included comments that the proposed bill is too complex to work with, too time-consuming to transfer work done before J-codes into the new format; too expensive to implement and too prescriptive in using J-codes. He recommended that the proposed version of the bill be adopted as the new bill format, but with references to the J-Codes removed so that practitioners may prepare the bill in any manner of their choosing, whether with the assistance of J-Codes or by hand.
https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ speech-lj-jackson-bill-of-costs.pdf
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.