Please note that it is our policy that we do not enter into payment conditions of the amount negotiated of any bill of costs. Any signed allocatur is immediately executable - subject to the usual 10 day gentlemen's agreement to pay such costs. We will negotiate and calculate the end figure but any payment conditions you wish to add to the settlement will need to be done between the attorneys. Under no circumstances will we be part of such negotiations. It serves no purpose other than to open a door to possible complexities, whereas the bill is payable immediately after taxation in any event.

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Our association with our Maltese Cloud partners - Matlo International Limited - has been running for many years and we have to date archived over 12,000 files to our own Cloud! We are "live" with our cloud and all our clients have electronic web access to their files of documents.

It is important to note that the scanning of an average size file is included in the 10.6% drafting fee. We are the only costs consultants who offer our clients a virtual office together with a highly professional legal costs service.

We currently have over 25,000 active subscribers to our website!

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The Taxing Master has to give effect to an order of court or agreement between the parties and may not make such an order by proceeding with a taxation without a court order.

Hugo v Hugo 1947 (1) SA 325 (O) at 329 – An order for costs in a divorce action does not include the costs of the interlocutory applications, such as applications for maintenance pendente lite or an application for a contribution towards costs (unless of course the costs of the proceedings were made costs in the cause.

In the same sense, the court has to specifically order what is to happen to the wasted costs of a postponement.

The principle therefor is the court has to give the Taxing Master directions by way of a court order) as to what is to happen with the costs. The Taxing Master has no discretion in this regard.

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The party presenting the bill of costs will serve the bill together with the Notice of Intention to Tax Bill of Costs on the other side who then has 10 days to inspect the file and 20 days in which to file their notice to oppose together with their clearly marked bill of costs with reasons clearly stated thereon. If no opposition is filed within the 20 days, the Taxing Master will still allocate a date for taxation but the opposing side will be shown the door at the taxation and it will be taxed unopposed. 

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The issue of claiming VAT on fees and disbursements in your bill depends on the question whether you will be out of pocket or not.

The scenario is as follows:
A. You are a VAT vendor, you receive a tax invoice for R100-00 +VAT, you pay the VAT and claim it back, you are out of pocket with R100-00 – you claim the R100-00 in the bill, it is taxed and R100-00 is refunded to you (or a % thereof) – it is not income for which you have supplied goods or services, you have not issued a tax invoice so you do not have to declare it and pay any VAT on it to SARS. The unsuccessful litigant pays R100-00 in terms of the taxed bill - no claim for VAT against SARS. SARS received R14-00 from the supplier of goods or services and paid it back to you – not out of pocket.

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