Solicitor and client costs

Statute bills

A solicitor’s invoice will only be a ‘statute bill’ if it complies with the requirements of section 69 of the Solicitors Act 1974 (SA 1974). This is important because no claim may be brought by a solicitor to recover costs due to them until they have delivered a compliant ‘statute bill’ in respect of those costs, and have allowed a period of one month to expire (see SA 1974, s 69(1)).

In respect of interim and final statute bills, all statute bills are ‘final’ for the period that they cover, in the sense that a statute bill cannot be amended or altered after delivered, save in narrow circumstances.

In order to determine whether an invoice is a compliant ‘statute bill’ (of either kind), the court will need to consider whether the invoice complies with:

1. •

   the express requirements of SA 1974, s 69

2. •

   the ‘implicit’ requirements of form and content imposed by the common law, and

3. •

   whether the solicitor was permitted to deliver a statute bill at the relevant time

For guidance on what a statute bill is, what