Melanie Bingham (Costs Lawyer)

Melanie has been working in costs since 1993. She became an Associate of the Association of Law Costs Draftsmen in January 2001 and a Fellow in January 2003. She was among the first Costs Draftsmen in the country to obtain Higher Court Advocacy Rights and the right to conduct costs litigation when she obtained her Costs Lawyer Practising Certificate in September 2007. Melanie has many years experience in recovering and opposing costs claims in a wide range of legal areas. This includes all aspects of Bill preparation, negotiations and attendance on Detailed assessment.

• Clinical Negligence
• Personal Injury
• Brain Injury
• Commercial
• Local Authority
• Immigration
• Media
• Libel/Defamation
• Matrimonial/Family
• Probate
• Insolvency
• Supreme Court (House of Lords)
• Legal Aid

Whilst working on the whole range of costs drafting needs for our varied client base, Melanie currently has particular expertise in the following areas:

• Clinical Negligence - cases ranging from lower level damages matters up to multi million pound cases with large initial lump sum awards and substantial indexed periodical payments. She works on publicly funded matters as well as cases conducted under Conditional Fee Agreements and Private Client Agreements.
• Commercial and Media - Melanie has many years' experience advising commercial clients in relation to high value disputes. She also has long standing clients in the media world, advising on libel and defamation claims.
• Local Authority - Melanie has a well-established working relationship with several London local authorities and has many years experience in opposing costs claims against, as well as recovering costs for, them.
• Melanie has taken a keen interest in the development of the use of Precedent H Costs Estimates which developed into the current Precedent H Costs Budget. She has experience of preparing Budgets and estimates for both past and future costs in cases valuing a few thousand pounds up to seven figures, negotiating on those Budgets and attending at Costs Case Management hearings.

Melanie is continually monitoring developments regarding the new format Bill of Costs and associated changes to the CPR with the aim of assisting our clients to make the transition to the new format as smoothly as possible.

Melanie has a particular interest in unusual claims for costs and has worked closely with her clients on numerous novel cases over the years.