Date of Case: 29 June 2020
Case Reference: [2020] EWHC 1669 (Fam)

Marina Faggionato represented the appellant mother in an appeal against a decision by HHJ Tolson QC. The original decision refused her application for a Legal Services Payment Order for Children Act proceedings.  The judge ordered an LSPO of £40,000 plus VAT. Rubin v Rubin [2014] 2 FLR 1018 and BC v DE [2017] 1 FLR 1521, were cited, with Cohen J noting:

1. the costs were unpaid costs, not historic;
2. an award would have been made if the mother’s LSPO application had been issued promptly in September;
3. an award must include both solicitor and counsel’s fees (unless counsel had agreed to “happily act on a direct access basis on his own”);
4. the mother’s solicitors did not continue working in anticipation of being unremunerated.

Cohen J also concluded the father would not pay for the mother’s fees between August and October 2019, in part because those fees were incurred by the mother changing solicitors and in part because of the delay in making the LSPO application.