§ Mr. OlnerTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department where records of default costs certificates showing solicitors charges in legally aided cases are held; whether they are available for inspection by members of the public; and how far back the records go. [118347]
§ Mr. LammyCase files which contain copies of default costs certificates are held at local county courts. There is no third party access to these files except through application to a judge at the court where they are held.
The retention period of a case file is dependent on the type of case (e.g. an adoption case file is kept 75 years). However, as default costs certificates were introduced with the implementation of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, copies of them would only be available from that date.