The Senior Court Costs Office has once again rejected attempts made by a personal injury client for access to their former Solicitor’s file of papers. Very much in anticipation of the guidance to be provided by the appeals in the cases of Green & Ors v SGI Legal LLP [2017] EWHC B27 (Costs) and Hanley…
One of the areas we are seeing the most increase of cases in is solicitor own client disputes. Recently the Commercial Court held that a Solicitor could bill her client for work that had not had a fee estimate provided for. In the case of Brookes (t/a Brookes & Co) v Atlantic Marine & Aviation…
A Senior Costs Judge in the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) phone hacking litigation has recently held that the proportionality test does not prevent the recovery of costs that are higher than the sums in issue in litigation. Whilst expressly stating that nothing in his judgment should be taken as an attempt to provide guidance in…
Shalaby v London North West Healthcare NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 1323 The Court of Appeal has ruled that the provisions of Part 36 do not entitle a Defendant to recover costs on an indemnity basis if a Claimant has not beaten a Part 36 offer. In the case of Shalaby, Mr Shalaby had brought…
Hogg v Newton (Judgment handed down 18th May 2018) highlights the importance of ensuring that every intended element of a claim is included, or excluded, within a Part 36 offer, and also emphasises the danger of not withdrawing Part 36 offers, no matter how old. The brief facts of the case are that the Claimant…
In Molodi v Cambridge Vibration Maintenance Service (1) and Aviva Insurance Limited (2) [2018] EWHC 1288 (QB) the High Court have allowed the Defendant’s appeal and dismissed the Claimant’s claim on the ground that the they had been fundamentally dishonest within the meaning of Section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. Liability…
In the recent case of Sirketi v Kupeli & Ors [2018] EWCA Civ 1264 the Court of Appeal overturned an order for costs in favour of the Claimants with an order for no costs. The claims, which were never formally incorporated into a Group Litigation Order but were joined and managed together with one firm…
A review of the decision in Harrap v Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust [2018] EWHC 1063 (QB) The recent decision in Harrap v Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust [2018] EWHC 1063 (QB) contains salient lessons to ensure witness evidence is fully pleaded and sets out the “full story”. The matter was…
Record Providers will now have to change how they respond to Subject Access Requests under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force on 25th May. How does GPDR change Subject Access Requests? Several aspects of how Subject Access Requests are dealt with have changed as follows: Record Providers will no longer…
Much has been made of the comments of Chief Master Marsh in Leslie & Others v MGN Limited [[2018] EWHC 1244 (Ch)] at paragraphs 38-48 specifically with regard to the witness evidence phase of a budget. To set the scene, the case is one brought by John Leslie, Chantelle Houghton and others, in the second…