Costs lawyers should be more widely retained to stop firms from inflating their costs when they are working on a contingency basis, according to a new report by the Costs Lawyer Standards Board. One litigation funder told researchers that costs never came in on budget and were often overestimated. A specialist professional negligence insurer said they were ’desperate for claims to be presented honestly, based on evidence’. The message from both was that, in their view, solicitors’ firms were often presenting wildly inflated claims based on their interests in a CFA and this was not always acting in the best interests of the client.’