The Guideline Hourly Rates changed on 1st January 2026. These are set out below. The 2025 and 2024 rates can be found underneath. Guideline hourly rates 2026 (with previous year’s rates in brackets) Grade Fee Earner London 1 London 2…
This section looks at decisions in relation to relief from sanctions and the general principles of CPR 3.9. Often there are links to the decisions themselves, together with links to posts on this blog. CASES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER May 2026…
Here we look at a highly unusual allegation. Two of the claimants (the paying parties) and the defendants sought an order making their ATE insurer solely responsible for the costs of the assessment process. This application was supported by “evidence”…
The two posts earlier today on the judgment in Amaal Ventures Ltd v Eros Ltd looked at problems arising because of a failure to plead damages. This is not an new issue. Here we use the CLB archive to provide…
There have been messages this morning from people wondering why they cannot log on to this site when the have a group membership. There has been a simple explanation. On a few occasions groups have taken out new annual subscriptions…
Here we have a claimant who, unsuccessfully, argued that it did not need permission to amend its pleadings to claim damages of £2.569 million. Having lost that argument its fallback position was that the court should grant permission to amend. …
If ever there was a case that would persuade you of the importance of pleadings it is this one. The claimant had succeeded on many issues at a trial. It now wanted to claim £2,569 million in damages. However an…
The previous post in this series looked at cases where the parties had “drifted” into disproportionate conduct and costs. However we should not be naive. Some litigants, and some litigators, will expressly threaten to run up costs as a litigation…
Here we are looking at the posts on witness statements, more particularly those arising from PD57AC. It says a lot that in 2024 the courts were dealing with a submission that these rules were “more honoured in the breach than…
Issues of legal professional privilege have been in the news this week. This makes it an opportune time to revisit those cases where litigants have inadvertently waived privilege by mentioning legal advice in witness statements. “… there is a distinction…
This short series on proportionality is aimed, primarily, at protecting the client and the lawyer. A client may be exposed to excessive costs and the lawyers get blamed for this. There are (it is to be hoped) few cases where…
This series enables us to pick up key topics from this blog over the past 13 years and relate them to specific areas of practice. The aim is to highlight the fact that the site is a useful resource as…
This is an important case about legal professional privilege. The headline result is that the SRA have no power to override such privilege when carrying out an investigation. It also highlights the hurdles any party can face when seeking to…
Yesterday we looked at a judgment in the Court of Appeal where the sum at stake was £25. The court was, shall we say, “sceptical” about whether this litigation was for the benefit of the actual client. For a while…
The judgment given today in the Court of Appeal was the second appeal on the issue. It involved two junior counsel on each side. The sums involved were not large, the Court estimated it to be £25.00. In every other…
In this judgment today the Court of Appeal held that it is not appropriate for a former client to raise Part 18 questions as to whether their former solicitors had received a commission on an ATE policy. This is important…
Last week we looked at (another) case where a claimant had come to grief when it failed to serve a sealed claim form in time. This is an opportune time to remind readers of the basic point that to be…
Last week we looked at a recent judgment which concerned interest on costs. That post also contained a series of checklists relating to interest on costs for the receiving party. I promised corresponding checklists for the paying party. There are…
We are returning to the previous case to look at the judgment in relation to the judge’s comments on the method of assessment. All the parties favoured a summary assessment, the Senior Costs Judge found that this was not appropriate….
We have the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of whether a receiving party needs to provide a breakdown of the costs of a medical report. Fittingly (and unsurprisingly) this judgment is about costs. It is an unusual case in…
Observant readers (and possibly the less observant ones) will have noticed that this week we have been paying homage to the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry in the UK. It is fitting then that we end the week with a…
Here we look at a recent decision on interest on costs. It also provides an opportunity to review previous posts on the topic and use them to look at a checklist on these issues for the receiving party. “I was…
Reports relating to requests for further information are relatively rare. In this case the judge considers the defendants’ request in detail. The claimant was not ordered to answer all of the questions raised. However the judgment does illustrate important issues…
This post written a decade ago deals with a recurring point in litigation as we have already seen this week. The tendency of witnesses, and lawyers to allow witnesses, to give “evidence” in witness statements of matters on which they…
We have here another example, in a judgment today, of the difficulties caused by the use of AI. ChatGPT “helpfully” drafted a “skeleton” argument that was 300 pages long (the maximum page length allowed was 20 pages). This was coupled…
Here we have a case where an application to resile from admissions and to amend defences were rejected in clear and categorical terms. To a large extent the change of position of the applicants were based on an argument that…
The previous post considered the nature of a solicitor’s duty in a conveyancing transaction. The judgment considered the nature of the solicitor’s duty to warn of risks. Here we pull together many posts and cases on advising on the risks…
We are looking at a case which explores the limits of a solicitor’s duty of care. It relates to conveyancing, however there are many points of interest to litigators. Firstly in relation to the reason the case failed (the “duty…
Here we look at a case where the judge was extremely blunt in his critique of the way in which both parties had drafted the witness statements. The judgment was from a few years back. However we are looking at…
Here we have a case where the claimant simply failed to serve a sealed claim form in time. Despite being warned of this by the defendant the claimant insisted that service of an unsealed claim form was sufficient. The claimant…
Claims for loss of earnings become particularly difficult when the claimant is not an employee. The court may have to reconstruct the likely progress of a business, professional practice, sporting career or career in the arts. Past income may fluctuate…
The previous post looked at the costs consequences of a claimant pleading a case on a wide basis and then succeeding on the basis of a case that was not specifically pleaded. It is worthwhile looking at the judgment on…
Here the “Cost Bites” series interacts with the “Present Importance of Pleadings”. The judge considered issues relating to liability to pay costs when the claimant had succeeded, but on a basis that was not pleaded. In these circumstances should the…
This morning we are travelling to Scotland to look at a case where the judge indicated that the use of AI had led the pursuers (claimants) to bring forward a claim that was largely unsupported by evidence. This led to…
The case we looked at in the previous post highlighted the dangers of failing to comply with the duties owed on a without notice application, an application to serve out in particular. The same judgment had some important guidance for…
We have looked many times at cases where “without notice” applications have come under fire. In particular in relation to arguments that the applicants have failed in their duty of full and frank disclosure to the court. We see that…
A post earlier today promised checklists on the essential elements that need to be considered when drafting a Reply. There are six here (we will deal with drafting a Defence to counterclaim separately). These should be useful in relation to…
The posts earlier today dealt with service and the drafting of a Reply. They emphasised that a Defence to Counterclaim is wholly different from a Reply.A Reply is generally optional. A Defence to Counterclaim is not.A party that fails to…
You may have noted that the theme of today is the Reply. Here we look at how a Reply should be drafted if a decision is made that one should be served. “A Reply should not, however, be used to…
There are a surprising number of cases that deal with the drafting of a Reply. Today we are having a detailed look of the rules and case law relating to the Reply. Here we take a look at the rules…
Here we look at a case where a defendant was successful in having an action against him struck out because there was no viable cause of action. The questions addressed here were – should the claimant recover 100% of his…
What is the situation if a party seeks a prospective application of time for compliance but, whilst the application is pending, does not act by the date they proposed? Is this still and “in-time” application? Should it be treated any…
We have seen that judge jealously (and rightly) guard against experts trespassing into the judicial role of fact finding. They are also suspicious of experts that take the role of advocates rather than independent experts. We see both of these…
Some things are timeless in litigation. The fact that it carries risks is without doubt one of those things. Here we look at a post that considered the duty to advise on the risks of litigation and how to fulfil…
We looked at this case earlier today in relation to the procedural aspects. However the substantive judgment, on which the defendant was successful, is of considerable interest to the legal profession generally. There are also issues as to how the…
The post earlier this week on the claimant’s inability to use TUPE to bring a claim against a defendant highlights the very real difficulties that exist when there is no defendant who can pay the claim. In that case the…
There is an important distinction between the striking out of a statement of a case and summary judgment. Striking out considers whether there is an arguable claim pleaded; summary judgment relates to whether that claim has any merits. This distinction…
We are looking at a case where a claim against a defendant solicitor was struck out. It was struck out because there was no arguable case against the solicitor. However the claimants had also breached numerous rules before and after…
Here we consider the risks that occur when experts use AI when they prepare a report or give evidence. We have seen several examples on this blog of evidence going awry. Here we draw upon guidance from previous posts, but…
Can the court grant an injunction to prevent the issue of proceedings in this jurisdiction? That was the question considered here. The answer was clear, and the judgment brief… “in my judgment, the court does not have jurisdiction to grant…
This year has seen some important cases in relation to the way in which the courts approach claims for loss of earnings. This webinar provides a practical and comprehensive examination of claims for loss of earnings in personal injury litigation….
We have looked several times at the dangers of using Artificial Intelligence to draft witness statements. It would be naive to believe that this issue is not going to arise again. Indeed it may well already be a common feature…
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