One of the things that is frequently contested when agreeing case plans, is whether an event should be payable for written submissions. Counsel often seek to obtain an event for these, but the criteria are very narrow. The criteria that must be satisfied are as follows:

• Only claimable by 1 Counsel/advocate, who actually prepared the submissions
• The day or days must be listed as reserved for written submissions within an over 10 day hearing in the original listing – no retrospective orders will be allowed as justification
• If in a later listing, written submissions are added as part of extra days to take the main hearing over 10 days – no event will be payable
• If the hearing is already over 10 days, but once the hearing has begun, the Judge lists written submissions at the end of a hearing – no event will be payable
• If the advocate does however satisfy all the above criteria, the solicitor is also entitled to an under run event for those written submission days

If main hearing dates were listed for evidence to be heard, and are then within 5 days relisted to serve as written submission days, we are of the view that both solicitor and Counsel should be entitled to under runs, since they have prepared for the hearing and the situation is no different to the listing being reduced within 5 days in the usual way (see earlier blog post on the 5 day rule).