Editor’s Note Care and supervision proceedings are among the most demanding areas of legal practice, both emotionally and procedurally. Yet the complexity of the work is not always reflected in how Legal Aid claims are assessed or paid. This article examines the most common billing errors in Care & Supervision Legal Aid claims and explains why perfectly legitimate work is so often reduced. The aim is not to criticise practitioners, but to highlight where good work is undermined by avoidable billing issues. Common Billing Errors in Care & Supervision Legal Aid Claims Care and supervision proceedings under Legal Aid are routinely described by practitioners as some of the most challenging cases they handle. The work is urgent, emotionally charged, procedurally intense, and often unpredictable. Despite this, billing for care cases is frequently treated as a routine administrative process rather than a specialist exercise requiring judgment and care. As a result, many Legal Aid claims in care proceedings are reduced not because the work was unnecessary, but because it was poorly presented, inadequately justified, or inconsistently recorded. These reductions are often accepted as inevitable, when in reality they are avoidable. One of the most common errors in Care & Supervision Legal

Editor’s Note In many law firms, costs drafting is still viewed as an administrative necessity rather than a commercial function. Bills are produced at the end of a case, often under time pressure, and assessed as a compliance exercise rather than a strategic one. This article challenges that mindset and explores why, in modern UK practice, good costs drafting is not an overhead, but a commercial asset that directly affects profitability, recovery, and risk. Why Good Costs Drafting Is a Commercial Asset, Not an Admin Task Despite years of procedural reform and increasing judicial scrutiny, costs drafting in England and Wales is still too often treated as an administrative afterthought. Bills of costs are prepared late, delegated without strategic input, and judged primarily on whether they comply with the rules. That approach is not only outdated, but commercially damaging. Good costs drafting is not clerical work. It is a specialist skill that sits at the intersection of litigation strategy, financial recovery, and risk management. Firms that understand this consistently recover more, write off less, and expose themselves to fewer disputes. Those that do not often leave significant sums on the table without ever realising it. At its core, costs drafting