Jackson LJ is continuing his enquiries into extending the fixed costs regime and to this end he recently chaired a fixed recoverable costs seminar in Birmingham on 16 March 2017. There were four speakers at the conference at the conference who offered their views on the proposals to extend the fixed costs regime; His Honour…
A case concerning the circumstance when a costs order will be made against a director personally There are circumstance when the Court can exercise its discretion and award the costs of litigation against a non-party. In this case a dissolved company (the Claimant) sought a limitation direction in order to recover disputed invoices rendered to…
A case in which costs were slashed as a result of poor conduct on the part of the receiving party during cost litigation. When I studied Civil Litigation on my LPC, I had already been drafting Bills of Costs for almost 2 years, though I didn’t consider myself particularly experienced. I was surprised therefore, when…
A case which sheds light on when litigation services are deemed to have commenced and the impact this has on retainers At the end of March 2013, many clients were signed up by Claimant solicitor practices in order that they be able to fund their claim via pre-LASPO arrangements. Most significantly allowing for the recovery…
A case in which costs and ATE premium in a clinical negligence matter were considerably reduced as a result of proportionality We have considered proportionality a number of times and unfortunately the inconsistent application of the new proportionality test continued in the case of Andrew Rezek-Clarke v Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In this…
A case in which agreed elements of a budget were not approved at the Cost Management Conference The purpose of cost budgeting is ultimately to ensure the proportionate cost of litigation, through the active involvement of the court. After cost budgets are exchanged it is often the case that parties will make efforts to attempt…
The landmark decision in Merrix v Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust [2017] 346 (QB) (article here) will not be appealed for commercial reasons With the impact of Merrix being so significant, a further appeal was widely expected. In a somewhat surprising move however the NHS has elected not to do so. While the initial assumption may be that there…
The ‘new’ fixed costs regime for EL/PL cases was introduced nearly three years ago and people are still understandably unsure as to the full extent of the highly convoluted CPR 45. CPR 45 is split into two relevant Sections for EL/PL costs; Section III THE PRE-ACTION PROTOCOLS FOR LOW VALUE PERSONAL INJURY CLAIMS IN ROAD…
A Key Decision Regarding the Assignment of Conditional Fee Agreements and the Recoverability of Post LASPO ‘Top Up’ Insurance Summary Heard before a full panel of five judges sitting in the Supreme Court, this matter concerned two important points of principle. Firstly the recovery of a success fee following the assignment and variation of a…
One of the Claimant friendly provisions of the Jackson reforms of 2013, QOCS, is retrospective save where CPR 44.17 applies. This reads: “This section does not apply to proceedings where the claimant has entered into a pre-commencement funding arrangement (as defined in rule 48.2).” CPR 48.2 goes on to state that pursuant to CPR 43.2,…