Solicitors' costs

The focus of the definition of “contentious work” for the purposes of the Solicitors’ (Non-Contentious Business) Remuneration Order 1994 (SI 1994/2616) was on the time when the proceedings were begun, not the time when they ended.

Provided the proceedings were begun before a court, it was then a question of fact, in any given case, whether work was subsequently done either in or for the purposes of those proceedings.

A clear distinction could therefore be drawn from cases where the court had decided that a particular item of property was to be transferred by one party to another, for example in ancillary relief proceedings following a divorce or in proceedings for specific performance of a contract, and where all that remained to be done was to give effect to that decision by carrying out the necessary conveyancing formalities.