Goodwin Malatesta > Ongar, England > Firm Profile

Goodwin Malatesta > Firm Profile

Established in 2006 by Malcolm Goodwin and Domenico Malatesta, Goodwin Malatesta Legal Costs Services Ltd is a highly professional independent firm of legal costs specialists who provide a comprehensive service to a wide range of clients.

The firm evolved from a niche practice providing assistance in relation to claims for costs arising out of clinical and professional negligence litigation and continues to be one of the leading firms that represents many of the major medical defence organisations, public health bodies and other private professional indemnifiers in the healthcare sector.  It is not uncommon for the firm to represent the majority of or even every Defendant in multi-Defendant clinical negligence claims where various medical defence organisations or public health bodies are involved, both at the costs budgeting and detailed assessment stages.  By extending our core experience and skills, the practice today provides prompt and cost-effective advice on all aspects of legal costs ranging from minor value claims through to large scale commercial disputes running into many £millions.

In recent years Goodwin Malatesta have been expanding their commercial legal costs practice and have been involved in numerous complex and high value claims including some of the largest claims for costs in the Competition Appeals Tribunal, Privy Council and Supreme Court.

Goodwin Malatesta constantly strives to provide our clients with high quality advice and this is achieved by fully utilising the extensive resources available.  Ultimately our goal is to provide an accurate and cost-effective service that meets our clients’ needs within the timescale required.  No matter the size, every case is given the equal care and attention that we firmly believe our clients deserve.

The firm actively supports all staff training, CPD requirements and the majority of our fee-earners are fully qualified costs lawyers and therefore regulated by the Costs Lawyer Standards Board.  The Directors are also members of the Association of Costs Lawyers.

The services provided include the following:

Costs Management

We provide a full and comprehensive costs budgeting service including advising on costs budgeting and costs management procedures and requirements. We assist in the preparation of Precedent H costs budgets and prepare Precedent R budget discussion reports in respect opponents’ costs budget.

We undertake negotiations to agree costs budgets, however if agreement cannot be reached we provide advocacy at hearings to maximise our clients’ costs budget position. We also assist with the monitoring and reporting on costs budgets and preparing revisions when required. We also deal with all costs budgeting issues that may arise during the currency of a case, including preparing Precedent T revisions when needed.

Goodwin Malatesta was one of the first legal costs practices to recognise the need for lawyers and medical defence organisations in particular, to receive a specialist costs budgeting service and we are now recognised as one the leading “go to” practices in this field.

Costs Recovery

We provide prompt and accurate preparation of detailed bills of costs for detailed assessment and statements of costs for summary assessment.  We also draft replies to points of dispute and deal with Part 18 Requests that may arise as part of this process.  After the bill of costs has been served and detailed assessment proceedings commenced, we provide a full negotiations service seeking to maximise costs recovery for our clients.

If our client’s costs cannot be agreed we provide advocacy at summary/detailed assessment hearings or advice and assistance at provisional assessment hearings.

Our instructions range from fairly routine bills of costs in clinical negligence claims to complex bills of costs in high value civil litigation including Group Litigation.

Opposing Claims for Costs

Advising on and minimising our clients’ payment of opponents’ costs in civil litigation is a core part of our practice.  We provide this service in respect of all forms of costs claims including those presented by way of both schedules of costs and bills of costs.

When instructed we provide our clients with a detailed advice on the costs claimed and if formal proceedings are commenced we will also prepare draft points of dispute for our clients’ consideration and approval.  Most of our clients instruct us to conduct negotiations on their behalf and if agreement cannot be reached we will provide advocacy in detailed assessment hearings or advice and assistance at provisional assessment hearings.

Other Services

Goodwin Malatesta provide advice and assistance on solicitor and client matters including preparing narratives and time breakdowns, advising on the enforceability of retainers and advocacy at directions hearings and detailed assessments under the Solicitors Act 1974.

We also deal with costs in probate and Court of Protection matters including assessments in the Senior Courts Costs Office.  We also assist with the recovery of costs out of Central Funds in criminal proceedings and provide advice and assistance on reviews of assessments from the National Taxing Team.

All aspect of the legal costs are covered, including advising on and providing assistance with security for costs applications, undertaking costs audits and general advice on all aspects of legal costs by telephone and email.  As an accredited costs lawyer, Malcolm Goodwin conduct seminars and training on legal costs for clients both virtually and in person.

Foreign Jurisdictions

 After many years working in legal costs, both directors have considerable expertise on the recovery and opposition of costs in other jurisdictions including Guernsey, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Bahamas.

Third Party Funding

Due to our involvement in heavy commercial disputes, we are able to provide assistance to third party funders when approached to provide funding in civil litigation.  We provide detailed reports to funders with commentary on the case from a costs perspective, advice on the parties’ costs budgets and the applicable rules concerning estimates and budgets to assist funders in their decision making process.