Experts in Law Cost Drafting, Advocacy and Negotiation

SM Legal Services Ltd are a Birmingham based firm of Law Costs Draftsmen in their third decade of providing legal costs drafting and costs recovery services to the legal profession – both legal aid and inter partes.

We prepare all types of bills of legal costs relating to all areas of the law, including personal injury (road traffic accidents, accidents at work, slip / trip), clinical negligence, professional negligence, commercial disputes, neighbour disputes, family and children matters and much more… We specialise in complex high value personal injury / clinical negligence cases.


Law Costs Draftsmen

We prepare our own template bills and often tailor the format of bills of costs to the specifics of your case, particularly for matters where the new format Electronic Bill of Costs is required.

We have extensive experience in all aspects of legal costs drafting and would be pleased to work to any preferred templates or styles.

We have prepared a vast number of form precedent h costs budgets, electronic bills of costs and High Costs Case Plans.

For the benefits of using SM Legal Services for your legal costing requirements, see here

Files for costing can be collected by our private courier or received through the DX system: DX 20853 Four Oaks.


Recovery of Costs

We prepare all types of bills of legal costs relating to all areas of the law:

  • high quality detailed and accurate bills of costs (inter partes, legal aid, solicitor-client)
  • Paper bill of costs
  • Electronic bill of costs
  • Precedent H costs budgets
  • Precedent R budget discussion reports
  • Statements of costs for negotiation
  • N260 statement of costs
  • Schedules/ Summaries of costs
  • Points of dispute
  • Replies to points of dispute
  • High cost plans for family and civil matters
  • CLS costs claims forms
  • CCMS online claims for costs
  • Personal injury (road traffic accidents, accidents at work, slip / trip), clinical negligence, professional negligence, commercial disputes, neighbour disputes, family and children matters and much more…
  • Specialists in complex high value personal injury / clinical negligence cases.

Cost Advocacy

 We have extensive negotiation and advocacy experience on detailed assessment and offer:

  • Representation on detailed assessment hearings
  • Representation on costs related hearings
  • Attendance upon telephone hearings
  • Negotiations and attendance at court
  • Assistance with provisional assessments

Advice on Costs

We offer advice and guidance:

  • General advice on legal costs and costs management
  • Formal written advices
  • Advice on formulating offers and conducting settlement negotiations

In-House Costing

  • We are happy to attend your offices at your request to  undertake work. This service can be useful for particularly large cases where it would be preferred that the files do not leave your premises, for cases of a sensitive nature and/or for urgent matters.

Give us a call: 0121 352 0517 


All of our law costs draftsmen are vastly experienced, qualified in law and skilled in advocacy and negotiation. We are based in Birmingham, West Midlands, but operate in various locations throughout the UK, including; Wolverhampton, Stafford, Shropshire, Worcester, Warwick, Leicester, Coventry, Hereford, Northampton, Nottingham, Derby, Cheshire, London, Manchester, Oxford, Liverpool, Leeds, Lincoln, Walsall, Solihull, Lichfield, Kidderminster, Chester, Stratford, Stoke, Gloucester, Peterborough, Sheffield, Bolton and Cannock.