Advanced Approaches to Magistrates’ Court Billing

Introduction

Do you sometimes consider that you are not billing your Magistrates’ Court work as effectively as you should? The fundamental rule is that payment may be claimed in respect of profit costs for all work actually and reasonably undertaken by a fee earner - see the Criminal Bills Assessment Manual (CBAM) and your 2025 Standard Crime Contract Specification document.

This short webinar will give you an insight into how you should be managing your Magistrates’ Court files in order that you give your clients the best possible service and in order that you may claim a higher fee than otherwise would have been the case.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The test for claiming enhanced rates on your Magistrates’ Court files under your 2025 Standard Crime Contract Specification document
• Knowing the serious cases in the Youth Court that attract substantially higher fees than in the Adult Magistrates’ Court
• The importance of entering ‘mixed pleas’ wherever possible - ‘mixed pleas’ immediately put you into Category 2 and your Category 2 fee is so much higher than your Category 1 fee
• How many cases do you have when you come to bill your files? Remember, you may claim a fee per case, so how many cases do you have?
• Court - Appointments under Section 38 (4) of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. The legislation and the case law
• The things you should be doing on your Magistrates’ Court file in terms of preparation once a ‘not guilty’ plea has been entered
• The things you should be doing on your Magistrate’s Court file as an advocate if you are going to be the trial advocate in the case
• You are expected to know the law but research may be chargeable if it is new, developing or unusual law. We have new Acts of Parliament - the Sentencing Act 2026 and the Crime and Policing Act 2026
• Preparation time must always be justified and is often best done by a case plan identifying the use of the time involved. Justification is everything when you are keeping a good note!
• How many proofs of evidence do you take? You may wish to take a proof dealing with such matters as antecedents and you may wish to take an additional ‘evidential proof’
• Have you had to consult the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025 (as amended)? Have you had to consult the Criminal Practice Directions 2023?
• Be careful with breach proceedings

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Tuesday 15th December 2026

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 2,400+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.