Author name: Simon Gibbs

One of the current battlefields in costs is over the issue of whether additional liabilities should be included (where still recoverable) when considering proportionality. One would have thought this was at least one area where there was no room for dispute as there is an express transitional provision dealing with this issue at CPR 48.1(1): […]

The decision by Regional Costs Judge Lumb in Merrix v Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust [2016] EWHC B28 (QB) caused many to question the point of costs budgeting. The issue the court faced was: “to what extent, if at all, does the costs budgeting regime under CPR Part 3 fetter the powers and discretion of

At the end of any unsuccessful campaign it is instructive to try to analysis why it went wrong. Why did Labour lose the 2015 general election? Because people voted Tory as Labour was not left wing enough. Solution: elect a hard left leader with genuinely left wing policies and watch the voters come flooding back.

Litigation Futures features a guest post from Deborah Evans, chief executive of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, titled “Can we trust insurers to behave?”.  In the context of rising insurance premiums, she called for “a robust examination of the facts” and for insurers to “stop making excuses and sort yourselves out”. The timing of

I have previously questioned the reasoning of Master Rowley, when dealing with the new proportionality test in May v Wavell Group, that: “The proportionate amount of costs must inevitably be smaller for a case which concludes early than one which reaches a final hearing.” My criticism was that it ran the danger of confusing what work

Online job advertisement I came across over the weekend: “Immigration/ Asylum Caseworkers / Paralegal / Family Solicitors XXX & XXX LAW FIRM – London SW19 Our firm have opportunities ambitious Caseworkers/paralegal with experience in immigration/asylum law have a genuine interest passion immigration. The ideal candidate will have excellent drafting and communication skills; have the able to

For cases where proceedings are issued on or after 6 April 2016 and cost budgets have been filed, parties must file an “agreed budget discussion report” no later than 7 days before the first case management conference (CPR 3.13(2)). The budget discussion report must set out (PD 3E para.6A): (a) those figures which are agreed

I previously commended on the fact the law has traditionally avoided applying hindsight when assessing the reasonableness of legal costs that have been incurred. This approach was confirmed when applying the old proportionality test in Lownds v Home Office [2002] EWCA Civ 365: “the proportionality of the costs incurred by the claimant should be determined having regard

My recently published article from Medico Legal magazine on whiplash numbers  is now available to view: here.

My annual Costs Lawyer Practising Application form needed to be completed before the end of 2016. As usual, this contained a section asking about the source of instructions during the previous year (solicitor, non-solicitor, legal aid, non-legal aid, etc).  However, this year, for the first time, rather than ask for the percentage of cases falling