We are looking at a case where a defendant successfully defended an application to commit, was awarded indemnity costs and yet ended up considerably out of pocket. It shows the importance of a well judged Part 36 offer by the…
Here we have a case that could well bring tears to the eyes of any litigator who works on a conditional fee basis. For the second time, on appeal, the claimant solicitor’s costs have been unsuccessful. The defendant former client…
It is possible to apply to set aside a previous judgment when the applicant’s case is that that judgment was obtained by fraud. However here we look at an almost textbook example of how not to go about this. The court…
Here we look at a case where the claimant spent a lot of time money and effort obtaining a world wide freezing order but failed to notice that the time for service of the claim form had expired. This led…
To end the week I am looking at another decision about expert witnesses (it has been a theme this week). This time we are looking at accident reconstruction experts. One expert was found wanting, the judge favoured the other. The…
Yesterday I imposed a 24 hour respite on this series “unless something really interesting comes up”. I have broken that promise, it lasted 22 hours. However the cases on experts keep coming in and, I think, readers need to know…
Here we are looking at some interesting arguments on Part 36 put forward by an, obviously disappointed, defendant. The claimant had beaten its own Part 36 offer and defeated the defendant’s counterclaim totally. Nevertheless, the defendant argued, this was not…
It is rare to see costs issues, initially suitable for summary assessment, referred for detailed assessment. We have such a case here. The judge decided that the issues, and in particular the hourly rate for solicitors sought by the receiving…
I feel almost bound to apologise for adding another post to this series today. I am not going looking for cases on experts – they just keep coming up. Here we have a judgment given today in a clinical negligence…
We have seen a trend in a number of recent cases of advocates cross examining experts and referring to judicial criticism made in previous cases that experts have been involved in. The judgment here goes one further and indicates that…
We are returning (and not for the last time) to a recent decision where the court considered the expert evidence in detail. Here we look at the judgment in relation to an expert who failed, until prompted, to inform the…
Here we are looking at a judge’s assessment of witnesses who gave evidence as to foreign law. Some of the witnesses were found to be less then helpful. (This case appears to have taken up several months of court time….
Yesterday we looked at a case where, on appeal, the judge indicated that he would set aside a costs order made against the claimants who had brought an action against the police. The claimants had QOCS protection. Today we look…
This webinar looks at what to do when things go wrong in civil litigation. There is a continual flow of reports that deal with errors made in relation to limitation, service or someone falling foul of the rules or court…
Here we are looking at issues relating to costs in an action that included a claim for personal injury but also included other elements. The question the appellate judge had to decide was whether the trial judge had applied the…
It may surprise people to know how important bundles are to the conduct of civil litigation. It is even more surprising how problematic they can become. Posts about bundles, and the problems they can present in civil litigation, have always…
Here we are looking at the award of costs following the judgment considered in the previous post. The applicants had, they said, incurred £435,000 in costs, the respondents sought £181,374.28. For the most part the judge rejected the applicants’ submissions…
Here we look at a case where the court refused thee applicants’ application for permission to amend its particulars of claim. There are many points of interest to litigators. The application was made too late and, in any event, did…
The 187th Update Practice Direction Amendments come into force today. These make changes to the Online Civil Claims Pilot. These make important changes and should be read in conjunction with the letter from HMCTS dated 25th July 2025 which is…
Here we look at the latest statutory instrument which makes changes to the rules. We are starting by looking at the changes in relation to the rules relating to costs. These provisions come into force on the 1st October 2025….
Here we look at a case where an expert reported without having all the relevant evidence to hand. In fact he only saw the claimant’s witness statements a few days before the trial. This, added to other issues, led to…
This is the start of a series examining cases where expert evidence is considered by the courts. As matters stand there are already dozens of posts on this site where the conduct of experts has been considered (and often criticised)…
Here we look at a Court of Appeal decision last week on inadequate reasons given in judgments. This has major practical implications for judges and practitioners. Appeals because of “inadequate” reasoning are those that are the most unfair to all…
Litigators and litigants are always particularly interested in knowing what the costs consequences of a hearing was. We get an opportunity to consider this here, looking at the costs order of a judgment we have already considered. What should the…
The principles relating to clinical negligence cases are well known. The major problem is usually determining the facts. In cases that involve a disputed recollection of what was said and asked in medical consultations this gives rise to major issues. …
It is always interesting to look at the awards that are actually made following an assessment of costs. Whilst each case is fact specific it is possible for litigators to pick up important points. Here we have a consideration of…
Today we are looking at a highly unusual solicitor and own client costs assessment. After hearing evidence over five days the judge decided that there was no retainer between the “client”and the solicitor. The client was not liable to pay…
We are looking again at the significance of matters not mentioned in a witness statement. This is another case where the judge found that there had been significant omissions in the claimant’s evidence. Again it is a case where these omissions…
We are looking at a case where the judge found that an applicant should have accepted a suggestion that their application be withdrawn. Because they did not take up that application the applicant was ordered to pay costs on the…
The theme for several of the posts today is how important it is to put information, that could be viewed as adverse to the witness, into a witness statement. If such information is left out, but revealed in cross-examination this…
An earlier post looked at a case where the court struck out large parts of a witness statement of a solicitor who was proposing to give evidence at trial. Here we look at what happened to the remaining parts of…
MEMBER NEWS: THE BACK CATALOGUE 3: THE COST BITES SERIES – 258 POSTS SO FAR AND NO SIGN OF STOPPING…
We can wager a bet (for charity of course) that 99.9% of litigators and 100% of litigants who read a judgment think – who paid the costs? The aim of this series, started in July 2022, was to enable practitioners…
Here we are looking at a case where claimants brought an action claiming that their data protection rights had been breached by a defendant firm of solicitors. The defendant had collated a list of claimants who had relied on a…
The first question the lawyer must ask when being presented with a report for use in proceeding is – is this report CPR 35 compliant? If it is not then it may have little, if any value. There is a…
In the Civil Justice system we do not have a figure such as the Secret Barrister who can publicise the major problems that exist in the county court. The House of Commons Justice Committee have gone a long way to…
There is an apparently never ending series of cases in which witness statements are used in circumstances where, in reality, the maker of that statement has no first hand knowledge of the matters stated. This often only becomes apparent at…
If there is any application that should make a claimant’s lawyer extremely uncomfortable it is making a without notice application to extend time for service of the claim form. If you add to this an application (made late) for permission…
We are looking at a judgment about allocation in a housing disrepair case. The story is a common one. The claimant wants the matter allocated to the Fast Track – so costs can be recovered. The defendant wants the matter…
We are revisiting a case we looked at previously in relation to costs orders being made against a Litigant in Person. One specific aspect of that judgment considered the costs of an application for contempt of court that the claimant…
One of the most aggravating things to read about in the legal press are those cases where people get into serious disciplinary trouble after having made a procedural or other mistake. It is not the mistake that has caused their…
If there are two unsuccessful defendants to an action and one of them is a litigant in person – should this have any impact on the costs order that costs order the court makes? This was an issue considered by…
CPR 3.10 is a rule often asked to so some “heavy lifting” by applicants who have not complied with the rules or court orders. Sometimes it is not capable of handling the load, particularly in relation to issues surrounding service…
The rules state that a party can seek disclosure of a document mentioned (among other things) in a witness statement. This is the provision considered by the court in this case. The difficulty here was that the witness in question…
One of the fundamental rules of litigation is to take care that the person you are suing actually has the money to pay damages (and costs). Often damages are covered by an insurer, however there can be problems if there…
When a party loses an application or a case and costs are not assessed immediately then the general principle is that the paying party will be ordered to pay “a reasonable sum on account of costs”. Here the court considered…
There have been a number of cases recently where discontinuing parties have sought to escape the costs consequences that normally apply. We have such a case here. The judge considers the relevant rules and case law in detail. It is…
Here we look at a case where a claimant made amendments to the response pack because service was going to take place abroad. The response pack then contained errors in relation to the times by which the defendant should take…
The “Proving things” series has proven to be very resilient and very long lasting. It started in February 2016 and, as of today, there are 267 posts under this heading. More often than the matters covered relate to “not proving…
We are returning to the issue of non-party disclosure, indeed to the same case as the previous post. That post highlighted the Master’s concerns about the way in which claimant’s application had been conducted. The same judgment also contains a…
Today we are looking at a case that everyone involved in making an application for non-party disclosure should read. The Master was highly critical of the applicant’s conduct of the application and the evidence in support. It proved to be…
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