Submit a bill of costs for a Court of Protection matter at the Senior Courts Costs Office
Guidance for parties seeking to recover costs in the Court of Protection, including professional deputies submitting a bill of costs for general management and other applications.
Overview
Eligible citizens can apply or be appointed by the Court of Protection (COP) to become someone’s deputy if that person ‘lacks mental capacity’. As a deputy you may be eligible to recover costs. The order made by the COP appointing the deputy will make it clear who can claim costs.
If the order made by the COP gives you authority for your costs to be assessed, you must complete and submit a bill of costs to the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO). The SCCO will assess the costs you have applied to recover and produce a provisional assessment for you to either accept or ask to be reviewed. Once the provisional assessment has been agreed, you must apply to the SCCO for a final costs certificate. This gives you authority to recover your costs.
This guide is for the initial process of submitting the bill of costs in a Court of Protection matter. For guidance on the full process of recovering costs, you can read the Senior Courts Costs Office Guide.
Submit a bill of costs
You must complete either a COP e-bill of costs or a paper bill of costs. The e-bill of costs is a spreadsheet that provides automatic calculations.
Submit an e-bill
Download the e-bill of costs template
You can find guidance for how to complete the e-bill of costs alongside the template.
Professional applicants
Once you have completed an e-bill of costs, you must submit it using the HMCTS E-Filing service. Make sure to check your filings thoroughly and only submit them when you’re confident they are error-free.
Citizen applicants
Once you have completed an e-bill of costs, you can submit it using the HMCTS E-Filing service. However, if you have any issue using the e-bill or E-Filing, you can contact the SSCO for support and to discuss alternative options for submission.
Submit a paper bill
You can also find guidance for completing a paper bill.
You must follow the guidance to make sure that you complete your bill of costs correctly and in full.
If you are a professional applicant, you must submit your paper bill using the HMCTS E-Filing service.
If you are a citizen applicant, you can submit a paper bill either using E-Filing or by post to:
Senior Courts Costs Office
Royal Courts of Justice
The Strand
London
WC2A 2LL
Other information you must include
When submitting your paper bill or e-bill, you must also include:
- a completed Request a detailed assessment of costs payable out of a fund form (N258B)
- a copy of the order giving authority for your costs to be assessed, for example the deputyship order or other COP order
- copies of any other order you are relying on for authority – for example, authority to buy or a sell a property or an order made in accordance with the judgment in ACC and Others [2020]
When filing any type of bill on the HMCTS E-Filing service, make sure you select the correct filing ‘sub-type’:
- for e-bills, choose ‘COP-E Bill (profit costs…..)’
- for traditional paper bills, choose ‘Bill (profit costs…..)’
The costs band you select should be based on the profit costs alone (without disbursements or VAT) and not the grand total of the bill.
Do not send the supporting documents using E-Filing when you submit your bill. If you use E-Filing to submit your supporting documents, we will reject them.
Submit supporting documents
There will be documents that you need to send in support of your bill of costs. These might include:
- the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) 102 and 105 forms
- a client care letter or evidence in support of rates claimed
- barrister’s fee notes
- invoices for any disbursements
- file notes
- copies of letters, emails and application documents
Contact the SCCO for full details about how to submit your supporting papers. You must make sure you are aware of this procedure before submitting your bill of costs.
What happens next
A costs officer will provisionally assess your bill of costs and consider the supporting documents. They will send the assessment back to you for you to either accept or request a reconsideration.
If the costs officer gives you any directions, you must deal with these quickly to avoid any unnecessary delays.
If the SCCO contacts you for further information, make sure you respond by any deadlines they provide – otherwise your filing may be rejected.
Once you have accepted a provisionally assessed or reassessed bill, you must submit the final costs certificate:
- for COP e-bill submissions, you must complete the relevant tabs in your e-bill and submit it on E-Filing with a PDF copy of the final costs certificate extracted from the original bill
- for paper bill submissions, you must submit the final costs certificate with a summary sheet and the assessed bill
A costs officer will then check and seal the certificate and return it to you by E-Filing, email or post.
Get help and support
If you have a query or need to provide an update, you can contact the SCCO by email.
This includes to update that the protected party has either died or regained capacity. Email the SCCO with the date of death or date the order was discharged. The SCCO office will let you know the next steps.
Email: scco@justice.gov.uk
We aim to respond within 5 working days.