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…
This webinar provides a practical and up-to-date analysis of the law and practice relating to provisional damages and periodical payments in personal injury litigation. It begins with a review of recent case law, including a professional negligence claim arising from…
Earlier today I promised a second post on pre-action disclosure. This case considered a number of issues, including whether the court actually has jurisdiction to make a PAD order when the respondent is based abroad. The judgment goes further than…
Here we are looking at a post from September 2016 on an issue that remains extremely current. When a witness statement is found to be inaccurate that witness will often blame their solicitor, or the person responsible for drafting the…
This is the first of two posts today about applications for pre-action disclosure. The applicants were, eventually, unsuccessful in each. Here the judge found that the applicants had not met the first jurisdictional requirement for disclosure. Even if they had…
This is a case about non-party costs orders that has some unusual elements. Firstly an argument that since the appellant was not cross-examined the court was bound to accept his assertions that he had no direct financial interest in the…
I wrote earlier this year about the sad death of Giles Peaker the revered blogger on Housing Law. The blog “Nearly Legal” is, I am glad to saying, continuing. However, such was Giles’ work rate a team of writers is…
Many of the problem areas of litigation we look at regularly (possibly daily) are often the result of human error. Sometimes there are mistakes as to substantive law, more often there are mistakes as to procedure. One major theme is…
Here we have an interesting decision on limitation. The judge found that the claimant’s action was not subject to the Limitation Act 1980 and allowed an appeal against a finding that it was. However there was a sting in the…
For many years now there have been issues relating to how far the “Denton” criteria run alongside the rules relating to applications to set aside a default judgment. We have such a case here. There was clearly an arguable defence,…
We are looking here at a judgment about witness credibility made by an Employment Tribunal several years ago. In particular the Tribunal found that the Defendants’ witnesses had deliberately backdated letters in an attempt to mislead. The reason we are…
In this case the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council considered whether the Court of Appeal in Trinidad and Tobago was correct to hold one defendant in a clinical negligence case to their pleaded case whilst, effectively, exculpating a co-defendant. …
Yesterday we looked at a checklist on costs for claimants in housing disrepair cases. In the interest of balance I said the next in the series would be aimed at defendants. Here is the checklist as promised. It encourages litigators…
Here we take a look at a judgment in a family case which contains an exhortation about running up unnecessary costs. This is normally a regime in which inter partes costs are not awarded. The conduct in this case led…
The fourth series on the Judge’s views of advocacy only had two posts. The second post in the series consisted of a tweet from an (anonymous) judge “Get to the Point Quickly”. The first in the series contained a…
Can a party who has an application for an injunction dismissed then issue proceedings and seek an injunction in identical terms? The answer in this case is no. The principles that prevent litigants seeking “two bites of the cherry” apply…
The review on the book on Costs in Housing Disrepair cases last week led me to consider a series of checklists on costs. I am starting with costs for claimant housing lawyers. However this site is even handed, the next…
In this case the judge was categoric in his view that the approach of the experts from both sides was wrong. There was a major difference between the experts – just under $170 million. In these circumstances the judge is…
Costs in housing disrepair costs have become somewhat of a battleground. This battle starts at the allocation stage and re-commences on assessment. This has become more acute because housing disrepair cases are not subject to the fixed costs regime. This…
We have had four posts this month along about costs being awarded on the indemnity basis. Indemnity costs have been awarded against claimants, (in a very high profile case), against defendants, and against a solicitor personally. The consequences of an…
In this case an insurer’s application to commit a personal injury claimant to prison was struck out. This was because the insurer applicant failed to satisfy the court that it had any right to bring the action in the name…
This is a case that started off as a consideration of the way in which a defendant firm of solicitors adduced evidence to support assertions that there was a history of fraud in motor accident claims. The appellants here, the…
For several years a post on bundles and “Sedley’s Laws” was the most read post on this site. Ever since then the preparation, presentation and numbering of bundles for applications and trials have formed a regular part of the material…
This is a case about the costs of providing care. It is unusual in that it does not arise in the context of a claim for damages for personal injury or clinical negligence. Nevertheless there are issues of general relevance…
We have looked before at how the new sections 11ZA and 11ZB into the Limitation Act 1980 have already been considered by the courts. Here was have another example. The new provisions were held to apply in a case where…
Here we have an important judgement pointing out that, in effect, the limitation period starts running again once a company is restored to the register. The court cannot grant an order under the Companies Act which extends limitation beyond the…
This webinar examines the legal and practical issues arising in accommodation and aids and appliances claims in personal injury litigation, with particular focus on the impact of Swift v Carpenter. The decision represents a significant development in how courts assess…
“What happens in America eventually happens over here” is a well known maxim. It is for that reason we are looking at a case about expert evidence and the use of artificial intelligence from the United States. (To be frank…
Here we see case where an appellant lost the chance to pursue an appeal worth £2.8 million primarily because of a failure to appoint new representatives or inform the Tribunal of details of how he could be contacted. Inactivity led…
It is rare to be able to see a costs decision on the recoverability of the costs of expert evidence. We have such a case here where the Competition Appeal Tribunal considered whether to allow a successful party to recover…
WITNESS EVIDENCE WEDNESDAY: YOU CANNOT NECESSARILY RELY ON INTERLOCUTORY WITNESS STATEMENTS AT TRIAL
Here we have a case where the claimant, wrongfully, believed that she could rely on witness statements that had been served in the course of the proceedings in addition to the statement served for trial. She was given permission to…
A recent email asked whether it is possible to change the frequency with which updates are received. Some people prefer daily or weekly updates. Changing the frequency is an easy step. HOW TO DO THIS Go to WordPress subscriptions https://wordpress.com/reader/subscriptions Choose…
Here we look at an important point in relation to the costs of a counterclaim. If a party is awarded the costs of the counterclaim those costs may be very narrowly confined. In this case the defendant attempted to recover…
Last week this blog had a fairly detailed review of those circumstances which often lead to no order for costs being made. We have another example here. The applicant had succeeded in the application it had made, however the judge…
We look again at the award of indemnity costs in the Associated Newspaper case. The reasons for this were manifold. However there were two important factors relating to the statements of case. Firstly the case was pleaded far too widely;…
CLB members have a discount to a series of webinars on damages that start in September. The series is intended to provide practical guidance for practitioners dealing with claims of every size, from straightforward road traffic accidents to catastrophic injury litigation….
It is rare for an order about indemnity costs to make the headlines of the national press and media. We are looking at a case which has had a major amount of publicity, not least because of the celebrity status…
In many cases relating to breach from sanctions the fault may lie with the solicitor rather than the client. This case considers that question directly. The clients’ innocence was an important factor in the court’s discretion. “I take from the…
This decision as to costs gives rise to two interesting issues. Firstly the claimant’s costs of an injunction application were reduced substantially because assertions were put forward on a basis that were “unsustainable” and which should never have been pursued,…
This week we go back to August 2019 with a simple (but I hope effective) post on avoiding negligence claims in civil litigation. Eight of the major problem areas were identified and succinct solutions offered. (There have been hundreds of…
This short series is looking at how you can spot “red flags” when looking at an expert report. There are often aspects of reports that “don’t fare well” when put under scrutiny at trial. “His response was that he usually…
This judgment is critical of the way in which an expert report was prepared. The problems were manifold in relation to the way in which the information was obtained, the way it was presented and the failure to consider primary…
Here is a relatively short judgment on an important point – if the purpose of interest is compensatory what is the position if a claimant would never have earned interest on the money in any event? As we shall see…
Some posts earlier this week concentrated on a case where the judge made no order for costs. This is an unusual outcome, but still one that has to be considered and the client warned about. Here we take a…
In this case the judge decided that the defendant’s conduct of the litigation warranted an award of indemnity costs being made. There is an interesting consideration of the case law relating to when costs will be reduced because of lack…
There are two issues of interest in this case. Firstly the judge’s decision on the appropriate rate for interest on damages generally. Secondly the judge’s observations that there is no need for the court to find misconduct to award enhanced…
We have below a series of posts about the dangers of putting “opinion” evidence into witness statements. It has been a constant theme on this site for, at least, 12 years. There is no sign of this abating. Attempts have…
This case emphasises a long existing principle that a second action cannot be brought if a claimant, now deceased, has settled proceedings in their lifetime. This principle extends to concurrent tortfeasors. There are also important observations outside the realm of…
Here we look at a judgment where the court considered an argument that the claimant had not beaten its own Part 36 offer. The judge held that the defendant’s argument fell at the first post because it failed to take…
We have had a number of cases relating to amending costs budgets recently. This one has a different result. The need to revise the budget arose from the judge’s decision that there should be a separate hearing on damages. This,…
I have had a number of enquiries asking how to update card details when a card has expired. I have outlined the four steps that need to be taken below. THE METHOD Log in to My Account on CLB….
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