In the news this week are reports that the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is urging people to lobby their MP’s for costs reform in holiday sickness claims. Apparently there has been a 500% increase in compensation claims for holiday sickness since 2013 and this is going to lead to restricted holiday choices, including…
One of the raft of measures proposed by the Jackson reforms was the relaxing on rules on contingent agreements, or rather Damages-Based Agreements (DBAs), in contentious business matters. The intention was to lessen the impact of removing the right to recover additional liabilities on an inter partes basis, and was introduced into legislation via S45…
The Court held in Nadarajah Vilvarajah v West London Law Limited [2017] EWHC B23 (Costs) that the Conditional Fee Agreement entered into between the Claimant and his Solicitor was unreasonable and the Claimant was therefore not liable to pay the costs as claimed by his Solicitor. Indeed the Solicitor’s Bill of Costs was reduced from…
Harrison v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 792 A highly anticipated Judgment which confirms the principles established in Merrix v Heart of England, regarding the relationship between Cost Management and Detailed Assessment Within the Merrix judgment handed down earlier this year (article available here), Justice Carr acknowledged that her decision…
Shaw v Medtronic & Others [2017] EWHC 1397(QB) A case which shows the difficulty in overcoming QOCS when a claim is discontinued QOCS has been in place now for four years, however it remains one of the most misunderstood principles in modern legal costs. CPR 44.13(1) provides the scope of QOCS: ‘(1) This Section applies…
Master Logan Prescott v The Trustees of the Pencarrow 2012 Maintenance Fund A case which confirms the scope of the fixed costs regimes, closes a possible loophole in respect of the regimes and provides insight into how the judiciary deal with statutory interpretation. Imagine a claim which falls under the definition of an RTA under…
The Rules Committee have published details of the pilot scheme for the extension of fixed recoverable costs. What do we know? It has been a long time coming, but today we are a step closer to a considerably extended fixed costs regime, covering claims worth up to £250,000.00. The Gazette reports that papers from the…
The question as to whether the Claimant can sue an unknown and unnamed driver where details of the vehicle owners insurance was available was recently considered in the Court of Appeal in the case of Cameron v Hussain [2017] EWCA Civ 366. In this case, the Claimant was injured in a hit and run road…
The importance of correctly framing offers is highlighted in a recent personal injury matter involving faulty work equipment, dealt with by our Solicitor/Senior Costs Draftsman Christopher Knibb. The claim involved a defective lorry trailer in which the curtain locking mechanism, which should have been welded to the frame, had broken, allowing for the tension bar…
Bhandal v HM Revenue and Customs [2016] EWHC 3387 (Admin) Exploring the reasoning behind denying a party the opportunity to defer payment of costs. With a refresher on the Denton test. When an Order for costs is made against a party, there may be one reason or another that payment cannot be made on time.…