Law Weblog

Direct access to barristers now uncertain

Tuesday 6 December 2005 at 8:21 pm | In News | Post Comment

On Friday 2nd December 2005 the Court of Appeal handed down its ruling in the battle between HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the tennis star André Agassi.

Tenon Media – Agassi’s accountant – did not provide “legal services” and so could not win on the issue of costs. Some of the costs inccured by Tenon were incurred when they instructed a barrister directly and did not use a solicitor, hoping to keep costs down.

Tenon’s total costs bill for was less than £20,000. The appeal judges heard that solicitors, who might have far less expertise in the tax field, could well have charged three times as much.

Agassi brought his case using the Licensed Access Scheme (LAS) designed to provide more cost-effective legal cover for small and individual litigants. A Bar Council spokesman said: ‘It is estimated that the effect of the judgment is that the client in this case will be able to recover up to about 41% of the costs of the tax professional, and 71% of his total bill when using the licensed access scheme.’