Legal Services Regulation Act 2015

Chapter 3

Legal practitioners’ duties in relation to legal costs

Prohibitions on charging costs in certain circumstances

149. (1) A legal practitioner shall not charge any amount in respect of legal costs if—

(a) they are legal costs in connection with contentious business expressed as a specified percentage or proportion of any damages (or other moneys) that may be or become payable to his or her client, other than in relation to a matter seeking only to recover a debt or liquidated demand, or

(b) they purport to set the legal costs to be charged to a junior counsel as a specified percentage or proportion of the legal costs paid to a Senior Counsel.

(2) A legal practitioner shall not, without the prior written agreement of his or her client, deduct or appropriate any amount in respect of legal costs from the amount of any damages or moneys that become payable to the client in respect of legal services that the legal practitioner provided to the client.