Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys – first example of costs being disallowed

The first decision of a judge reducing costs in light of Mazur & Anor v Charles Russell Speechlys LLP [2025] EWHC 2341 (KB) has just been reported.

Legal Futures has written up last week’s Claims Futures conference where one of the speakers was District Judge Richard Lumb, who sits at Oxford Combined Court as a regional costs judge.

He applied Mazur to cut the costs awarded to a law firm in a housing possession case from £3,000 to less than £500.

The day before the conference, he had dealt with a housing possession case which involved a private landlord with an agreement saying that, in the event of a dispute that went to court, the tenant had to pay the landlord’s reasonable costs, to be summarily assessed by the court. A schedule of costs was produced where it was clear that the case had been conducted throughout by a grade D paralegal.

District Judge Lumb commented:

“The reality of that, applying Mazur… is that the person was not authorised to be conducting litigation and there weren’t any other fee-earners in doing the work, according to the schedule of costs.

“As a consequence, applying Mazur – which is a case binding on me at my level – I disallowed those costs, which were claimed at about £3,000, but instead gave the solicitors fixed costs which were recoverable, which including the court issue fee were just less than £500. It made a significant difference.”