Author name: Simon Gibbs

I’ve commented before on Regional Costs Judge Middleton’s view that the £75,000 provisional assessment limit does not include VAT. He expands on this in the White Book supplement Costs & Funding following the Civil Justice Reforms: Questions & Answers. “Q8. Does the £75,000 limit for provisional assessment include or exclude VAT? This is a purely procedural […]

Another massive step in the direction of fixed fees across the board with the announcement the government intends to consult on introducing fixed fees for clinical negligence claims of up to £250,000, with it envisaged they will be introduced in October 2016. And there was people worrying about the introduction of a new bill of

Mr Justice Warby in Stocker v Stocker [2015] EWHC 1634 at paragraph 63: “Witness statements are meant to be in the witness’s own words, and an assistant solicitor should be able to do the majority of the work”

Interesting blog post from Andrew Hogan suggesting that an oral hearing following a provisional assessment is by way of a “review” rather than a rehearing, and that the court should not consider additional documents that were not before the court at the provisional assessment stage. The basis for this suggestion is the wording of CPR

The committee developing the new bill of costs format has released the following documents: Guidance Document Blank Template Example Data Print Version This was accompanied by the following: “We are inviting comments/suggestions on the draft new bill of costs by 18.9.15. It is planned that there will be a Practice Direction in force from the

I previously commented on the Coulson J, in CIP Properties (AIPT) Ltd v Galliford Try Infrastructure Ltd & Ors (Costs No. 2) [2015] EWHC 481 (TCC), as to the suggestion a defendant might try to submit a knowingly low costs budget: “In his written submissions on behalf of the claimant, one of the points made

We all have our own bugbears about the things our opponents do. What really annoys me is an opponent who threatens to do a certain thing (eg prepare a formal bill, issue Part 8 proceedings, make an application for relief from sanctions, set a matter down for assessment, etc) if they have not heard from

The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 4) Rules 2015, coming into force on 1st October 2015, introduces an amendment of CPR 47.6 as to the documents to be served when commencing detailed assessment proceedings: “8. In rule 47.6, in paragraph (1) – (a) at the end of sub-paragraph (a), omit “and”; and (b) at the end

In what is unlikely to be the shock judgment of the year, the Supreme Court has declined to strike down the pre-Jackson funding regime in Coventry & Ors v Lawrence & Anor [2015] UKSC 50. Perhaps more surprising is that as many as two of the seven judges dissented with powerful reasoning as to why

The Guidance Notes on Precedent H includes the following work as not to be included when preparing a costs budget: “Assembling and/or copying the trial bundle (this is not fee earners’ work.)” Why is extensive work therefore routinely claimed for preparing trial bundles? Cleary careful thought needs to be given as to what to include,