The motivation for this series arises from a personal experience earlier this year. I had travelled to a hotel in readiness for a trial the following day. At midnight I found out that the other side were asking for an…
Readers may know my colleague Andrew Hogan as the author of the extremely useful “Costs Barrister” blog. Subscribers to LinkedIn may well follow his regular activities and photos of Labradors & other canines (which he tells me prove to be…
We continue to look at the case considered in the previous post. Having made the point that the budget is not so much about hourly rates but about the reasonableness and proportionality of the figures as a whole the judge…
At the budgeting phase of a case there are often disputes as to the appropriate hourly rates. The response is, usually, that it is not the court’s task on budgeting to set the hourly rates but to consider the reasonableness…
I have written three posts on the decision in Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys already. This judgment has profound practical implications for the profession in the way it manages cases and supervises staff. This webinar on the 3rd October 2025…
Issues relating to the effective and efficient delegation of tasks in litigation have never been more important. The significance relates to efficiency, costs and compliance with the litigator’s professional and statutory obligations. These matters are being considered in detail in…
We are returning to a case we have looked at several times already. This time on the question of costs. Since the appellants were successful the costs order against them was overturned. However it was held that the judge erred…
I had a helpful comment from a subscriber yesterday about the ease in which they could access posts. They were finding that when they clicked on the link in the email this was taking them to the first page of…
As I said yesterday the matters discussed in the recent judgment about whether a fee earner can conduct litigation may have a widespread impact. It is important that litigators are aware of the views of the Law Society and the…
I have been considering a series on judicial observations on witness evidence for some time. It seems like a good idea to put this in the middle of the week so we have a regular reminder of how significant these…
We are looking at a High Court decision that could have major ramifications for the way in which firms of solicitors organise their practices. In particular in relation to the qualifications of staff who conduct litigation, what is meant by…
We are continuing with our consideration of Damages-Based Agreements that were found to be unlawful. This time the judge considered the position in relation to counsel’s fees and the Regulations. The judge held that the attempt to charge counsel’s fees…
Today we are looking at a case where the appellants claim to £1.3 million in costs was lost because the Damages-Based Agreements were found to be unlawful and unenforceable. It provides a salutary lesson to all those who are involved…
It is not unknown for debtors to seek to transfer property to another person in an attempt to avoid a charging order being made against it. We see see such a case here. A house, initially in the sole name…
Here we are looking at a substantial reduction in a budget. The claimants here sought £39,967.50 for each meeting of the solicitors co-ordinating group litigation. The court was not happy with this… (When you are claiming £39,967.5o a meeting for…
The way in which the “Expert Watch” series has quickly developed shows that issues relating to expert evidence continue to give rise to problems. These three webinars explore many of the major issues in relation to experts. Dealing with the…
Many of the cases relating to civil evidence and social media involve “drama” of some sort, particularly in relation to allegations of fundamental dishonesty and fraud. Here we look at the use of social media in a different, but still…
We have another example of a lawyer getting into trouble (potentially very serious trouble) through the use of Artificial Intelligence and its ability to “hallucinate” cases. It was accepted that the error was not deliberate. However the Upper Tribunal pointed…
We are looking at a number of cases that, on the face of it, are highly unusual. One judge has already indicated that there is a strong prima facie cases that some related cases “are all fraudulent”. There are…
Earlier today I warned that a recent decision by the Divisional Court in relation to CPR 6.15 was unusual and should not give great comfort to litigators generally, later we looked at the new Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide which…
When the parties agree a phase of a budget this can, on the face of it, have a knock on effect on the related phases. But, as Cab Calloway famously said – that ain’t necessarily so. In the case we…
There appears to be no end to the practice of witnesses giving the court the benefit of their opinion in witness statements. There have been numerous cases where the judiciary have warned against this. The white book has a specific…
There is a new edition of The Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide 2025 available on the Judiciary website. It contains clear guidance on procedure and, as the Preface makes clear, is keen to help practitioners avoid common procedural pitfalls. It…
Here we look at some interesting observations made about the process of drafting witness statements. The court was budgeting the process and considering an argument that there should be “numerous reviews and peer-reviews” during the process of drafting the statements….
Here we are looking at an unusual case in relation to service. It is a case where the claimant served at the wrong address but (unusually) the court exercised its discretion to retrospectively validate service. There is more to this,…
I don’t know how many planning lawyers subscribe to this site – it may be none do. However I am fairly confident that they could get full value out of their subscription if it persuaded them to pay attention to…
We are looking at a case that has already been subject to several posts on this site. In the previous decision about budgeting the claimants’ budgets were described as “absurdly high” and the arguments “strains all credulity”. The court is…
We are here honing on in one aspect of a decision that was about allocation. The judge commented on how poor the pleadings of both side were. The Particulars of Claim and Defence were too long, a Reply was unnecessary. …
Here we are looking at the (to my mind somewhat risky) practice of applying for and obtaining an injunction, without actually issuing proceedings. This judgment is a reminder that this should only happen in exceptional circumstances. (This was an injunction…
Here we look at the latest statutory instrument which makes changes to the rules. This time a highly specific rule making amendments to Part 8 to deal with the filing of evidence where the defendant states it intends to dispute…
Here we are considering once again the question of whether it is wise for a solicitor to sign a statement of truth on behalf of a client. It arises from the case we have already looked at this morning. However…
We are taking a closer look at the judgment on fundamental dishonesty. I want to hone in on the issue of the evidence provided by social media, in this case Facebook. This case is an almost textbook example of a…
Here we look at a case where the claimant was found to be fundamentally dishonest. The judge commented on the irony of the fact that she had a substantial claim for damages, even without that dishonesty. Nevertheless the evidence of…
Here we are looking at an interesting argument in relation to whether service was effective after a party had changed their name. The defendant argued that the name change meant they had not been served properly and were not a…
We are looking again at the award of indemnity costs. The judge ordered that costs be paid to the claimant on the indemnity basis. He then went on to consider whether, given that decision, it was necessary to retrospectively vary…
Here we look at a judgment where indemnity costs were awarded against an unsuccessful defendant. As we shall see there were a number of factors in that decision. However it is notable that, in both judgments, the judge commented on…
The new series on enforcement on this site shows the major problems a successful litigant can have even after they have obtained a judgment. This webinar looks at the routes by which a claimant can attempt to investigate or ensure…
We are looking at a different aspect of the case we have already looked at this morning. However the paying party in that case to some extent where the authors of their own misfortune. In particular the judge held that…
The principles considered here work for both sides. Where does a receiving party look when the paying party wants to reduce costs because of “proportionality”? Where does a paying party look to gain guidance on such issues. I am here…
I am grateful to my colleague Paul Hughes for bringing my attention to this decision of the SCCO in relation to proportionality. It is a case where the paying party specifically raised proportionality as a further and specific issue after…
This post follows a report earlier in the week of a solicitor being struck off because she lied to her client about the fact that a medical report had arrived. The medical report contained bad news in relation to the…
Enforcement is an important part of the civil litigation process. If a litigant won’t pay the sums due under a court order then the whole process was, most probably, for nothing. The aim of this series is to look at…
Over the past month or so we have looked at three cases where the question of allocation of housing disrepair cases has been considered. The issue lies between Fast Track and the Small Claims Track. This webinar looks at the…
The aim of this series is to give practitioners a quick place to look if they are placed in a sudden dilemma. The issue here, which can arise at short (or no) notice is what should a party (“A”) do…
We are looking at the judge’s consideration of costs issues after a lengthy trial. The claimants had succeeded and the judge considered whether the matter had been conducted in such a way as to justify an order for indemnity costs…
Yesterday we looked at a case where a receiving party accidentally included a claim for VAT in a bill of costs. The error was noted, after being queried by the judge, however the judge went on to state ” I…
Last week we looked at webinars coming up which may be of interest to CLB readers. CLB members can obtain a discount on these webinars. The same discount applies to webinars which are now available “on demand”. These webinars are…
We are looking at a case where the judge summarily assessed costs with no input from the paying party. The receiving party had made a mistake by claiming VAT (something only appreciated when the judge raised the question). There was…
We look here at an unusual set of facts relating to the judge’s assessment of expert evidence. Firstly the judge found that the claimant’s expert had no real experience of the specific issue in question in the action; she also…
It is worthwhile taking a look at cases where costs are awarded in cases where there normally would be no inter party order for costs. We look at such a case here, in the First Tier Tribunal. On appeal to…
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