Posts made in November, 2018

By Simon Gibbs on Nov 30, 2018 | 1 comment

I had anticipated that the case of Culliford & Anor v Thorpe [2018] EWHC 2532 (Ch) would be the last word we would hear on the subject of interim payments for costs.  In that case the court had to decide whether it had the power to order an interim costs payment after the original costs order had been made. The judge concluded: “In my judgment, it is not the law that, once an order for costs has been made, drawn up and sealed, no further application can be made to the court for an order for a payment of a sum on account of those costs. There is nothing in the rules which so requires, and there may be good reason why payment of the sum on account is not considered at the time the order was made. My decision in Ashman v Thomas [2016] EWHC 1810 (Ch) does not decide to the contrary. It was a case where the court was asked to revisit its order before it had been drawn up and entered. So it turned on the so-called Barrell jurisdiction. There was no need to decide what would have happened if the order had already been entered. Although CPR 44.2(8) contemplates that the court will decide this question at the time of making the order for costs, to my mind this does not exclude the possibility that the court should decide it later. I see no justification in the rules or authorities for the Claimants’ view that, if an application is not made at the time, the next opportunity arises only after detailed assessment proceedings have been commenced.” However, barely had the ink dried on that judgment before another decision on this topic has been reported (although the case was actually heard several months before Culliford). In Finnegan v Frank Spiers [2018] EWHC 3064 (Ch) the High Court ruled that the court has no power to order a payment of costs on account after a Part 36 offer has been accepted.  This is because Part 36 is a self-contained code and it makes no provision for payments on account following acceptance of a Part 36 offer. We now have two different principles governing interim payments on account: Where the...

By Simon Gibbs on Nov 22, 2018 | 0 comments

The SCCO has published the updated Senior Courts Costs Office Guide 2018.  This is the first update since 2013. It provides a helpful summary of a number of procedural points.  It also provides a useful list of the current Regional Costs...