Legal Costs Blog
Legal Costs Blog
Legal Costs Blog
Can defendants recover costs if a claim settles pre-issue?
Does the extension of Fixed Recoverable Costs enable defendants to recover their costs if a matter settles pre-issue? There are certainly a number of commentators who have suggested that this is indeed the case. If correct, this would mean that the mere act of sending a letter of claim might ...
Read More
Fixed Costs for Stage 1 of the Intermediate Track
Part VII of CPR 45 is headed: “VII FIXED COSTS IN THE INTERMEDIATE TRACK” CPR 45.50(1): “For as long as the case is not allocated to the multi-track, the only costs allowed in any claim which would normally be or is allocated to the intermediate track are (a) the fixed costs in ...
Read More
Fixed Recoverable Costs – CPR 45.13
CPR 45.13 allows the court to penalise a party who is found to have behaved unreasonably by reducing their costs by 50% if the unreasonable party is the receiving party or increasing the other party’s costs by 50% if the unreasonable party is the paying party. The rule does not, ...
Read More
Fixed Recoverable Costs and Unreasonable Behaviour
Traditionally, a party in whose favour a costs order was made could seek those costs on the indemnity basis where the other party had behaved unreasonably during the litigation. In fixed costs matters, a party could seek to escape the fixed costs regime by showing there were “’exceptional circumstances”, which ...
Read More
Defendant’s Fixed Costs where no amount specified in claim form
An earlier post looked at the Fixed Recoverable Costs for defendants being based on the “the amount specified in the claim form, without taking into account any deduction for contributory negligence, but excluding – (i) any amount not in dispute; (ii) interest; or (iii) costs” (CPR 45.6(2) and (3)). What ...
Read More
Defendant’s Fixed Recoverable Costs
The extension of Fixed Recoverable Costs sets the level of recoverable costs for both claimants and defendants. Where the claimant wins, the claimant’s costs are set by reference to the damages as agreed/awarded (see CPR 45.45(1)(a)(iv) and CPR 45.50(2)(b)(iv)). It is the settlement value which is determinative. The position is ...
Read More
Fixed Costs where settlement pre-assignment to Complexity Band
There is no doubt that the rules allow a court on detailed assessment to limit a party’s recoverable costs to those that would have been applicable to a particular track even if the matter settled pre-allocation. That is what CPR 46.13(3) expressly provides for: “Where the court is assessing costs ...
Read More
Fixed Recoverable Costs – Complexity Bands
One of the likely future battlegrounds arising from the extension of Fixed Recoverable Costs is the issue of what complexity band a matter should be assigned to. The natural assumption is that claimants will seek to have matters assigned to higher complexity bands (where the recoverable costs will be higher), ...
Read More
Transitional provisions for non-PI Fixed Recoverable Costs
A recent post commented on problems with the drafting of the transitional provisions concerning Fixed Recoverable Costs. The latest Minutes from the Civil Procedure Rules Committee recognises this issue: “It was NOTED that a recent article had given rise to a concern in relation to the transitional provisions within the ...
Read More
Costs webinar on clinical negligence costs
Costs webinar from Kings Chambers’ Andrew Hogan and Kevin Latham on clinical negligence costs including hourly rates, budgeting, the use of ADR/mediation and fixed costs.
Read More
2024 Guideline Hourly Rates
The Master of the Rolls has approved new guideline hourly rates to come into force from 1 January 2024 and thereafter to be uplifted annually by the Services Producer Price Index. Grade Fee earner London 1 London 2 London 3 National 1 National 2 A Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ ...
Read More
Liverpool solicitor Robin Makin named as ‘AB/X’ in anonymity case
The latest twist in the long running saga of AB v Secretary of State for Justice [2023] EWHC 72 (KB) (and X v The Transcription Agency LLP & Anor [2023] EWHC 1092 (KB)) is that AB/X, who previously benefited from an anonymity order, has been revealed as high profile solicitor ...
Read More
Unlawful DBAs and PACCAR
The decision in PACCAR Inc & Ors, R (on the application of) v Competition Appeal Tribunal & Ors [2023] UKSC 28 has left many third party funders scrabbling around looking for a solution to keep their business models intact. The Supreme Court ruled that litigation funding agreements (LFAs) whereby the third party ...
Read More
Fixed costs and the indemnity principle
The indemnity principle does not apply in relation to fixed recoverable costs (as per Butt v Nizami [2006] EWHC 159 (QB)). This has become increasingly important with the extension of fixed recoverable costs from 1 October 2023. In the past, the importance of this was often in the context of ...
Read More
Inaccurate costs estimates
The decision of Senior Costs Judge Gordon-Saker in Kenton v Slee Blackwell PLC [2023] EWHC 2613 (SCCO) is another warning as to the dangers of failing to give proper costs estimates. The client had entered into a Conditional Fee Agreement with their solicitors. In advance of entering into the agreement, ...
Read More
Fixed recoverable costs, capped costs and litigants in person
The major extension of Fixed Recoverable Costs has left two areas where the recoverable costs are capped rather than fixed: For non-personal injury cases suitable for the Intermediate Track which settle “from pre-issue up to and including the date of service of the defence” (CPR 45.50(3)). Cases where the receiving ...
Read More
Costs Podcast with Alex Hutton KC
Podcost discussing a broad range of current topics including the introduction of fixed recoverable costs, the latest challenges to funding models presented by the PACCAR decision, the influence of guideline hourly rates on detailed assessments and whether there is any appetite for reform of the Solicitors Act, with costs counsel ...
Read More
Do solicitors need to time record with fixed recoverable costs?
The Government’s report Extending Fixed Recoverable Costs in Civil Cases noted one of the benefits of extending fixed recoverable costs, including applying a fixed % uplift on the fixed costs if a party succeeds on a Part 36 offer (rather than allowing indemnity costs), was that this would avoid the ...
Read More
Fixed Recoverable Costs transitional provisions
The transitional provisions concerning the new rules relating to Fixed Recoverable Costs appear to contain a fairly obvious and significant drafting error. s1(1) of The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2023 provides: “These Rules may be cited as the Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2023 and come into ...
Read More
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Join 559 other subscribers.
Archives
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Join 559 other subscribers.
