Here we are looking at a case where the court refused the defendant’s application to extend time when the defendant wanted to challenge the argument that costs were capped. It was held that the defendant’s delay of 21 days was…
There have been at least three cases over the previous few months where attendance notes taken by solicitors have played a significant part in the outcome of a case, appeal or application. These notes protected a solicitor against complaints of…
One of the aims of this series is to look at how costs awards are being made in practice. What is happening “on the ground” is important, if not essential, knowledge for working litigators. Here we look at a summary…
Here we are looking at a case that reminds us that a client’s ability to challenge the reasonableness of solicitor’s costs can go outside the Solicitors Act. Even when the time for challenging the bill has passed the court can…
It may not have escaped reader’s notice that we have already started the month by looking at a case about defects in the service of the claim form. The claimants in that case (which was said to be a £22…
Here we look at a case where the claimants came to grief on issues relating to service – extensions of time for service of the claim form were set aside. One remarkable feature of this litigation is that this was…
Here we are looking at a case where the appellants argued that a decision was unfair because, although they had lodged submissions on key issues in time, these did not reach the judge until after they had written their judgment….
Here we are looking a a summary assessment of costs following an appeal that was all about costs. The are a number of issues of interest here: the hourly rates, time spent and use of Leading Counsel are considered. Further…
As recent events have shown the consequences of inadequate training, supervision and knowledge of those responsible for running outdoor activities can lead to major injuries and fatalities. The webinar looks at the case law, statutes and general guidance in relation…
When a court considers setting aside a regular default judgment it must have regard to whether the application was made “promptly”. There is a consideration of that issue in the case we consider here. There had been some delay in…
The previous post looked at the Court of Appeal decision yesterday in relation to applications for anonymity in civil cases. Here we take a close look at the factors that the courts have to consider when an application for anonymity…
This is the first of several posts that will look at the Court of Appeal judgment today in relation to the principles concerning applications for anonymity and reporting restrictions on children and protected parties involved in litigation. Here was have…
It is getting to the stage that I am concerned about receiving complaints from readers if this blog does not have a regular feature on bundles. In fact we have not looked at a case since June, so we are…
There are relatively few cases relating to service of proceedings by a contractually agreed method. We have some significant issues considered in this case. Firstly whether the defendants were, in fact, parties to the contract that the claimant relied upon…
We are looking at a case where a claimant, in closing submissions, attempted to take a point that had never been pleaded. The defendants stance was that it did not want to take a “pleading point”, however the judge found…
I remain surprised about how many of the cases relating to service of the claim form are professional negligence actions. Perhaps those who conduct such work come to believe they have a degree of immunity from the normal rules of…
We are looking at a decision newly arrived on BAILII in relation to disclosure and relief from sanctions. A defendant brought (potentially significant) documents to trial which had never been disclosed before. The trial judge did not permit the defendant…
It may be a matter of comment when the suspicion arises that the costs of arguing about costs exceeds the initial costs in dispute. I suspect that may be the case in many cases in this series (indeed people have…
We are looking at another case where a party served a witness statement and yet the witness did not attend trial, the court only being told of this at the end of the trial itself. In this case the statement…
As promised in the previous post, here is the discount code for the Civil Litigation Brief series of webinars. The webinars include topics such as cost effective delegation, attendance notes, the liability of insurers to pay judgments, the joint expert…
There are a series of webinars coming up which cover many of the key aspects we look at on this site. Members who subscribe to the site can now obtain a discount on each of the webinars, with further discounts…
We have seen some unusual conduct of experts on this site. However the case we look at today has elements that we have not looked at before. An expert carried out tests on the claimant and, as a result of…
Here we are looking at a case where the claimant served witness statements that he said he was going to rely on. It only became apparent part way through the trial that the claimant was not, in fact, going to…
We are carrying on with the review of the appeal judgment that considered key issues in relation to service by electronic means. Here the judge considered whether the claimant’s failure to obtain the defendant’s specific consent prior to service rendered…
We are returning to look again at the case considered in the previous post. This time honing in on the error that was made initially in relation to the time for service of a notice of discontinuance. The District Judge…
I have been sent a case that is important and interesting on many levels. Firstly in relation to when it is permissible to serve documents by email; secondly in relation to the latest time in the working day that documents…
There is an interesting postscript to the case we looked at earlier this morning. It is another example of a party attempting to use a request for “corrections” of a draft judgment as an opportunity to re-open the whole case. …
We are looking today at a case with an unusual, if not extraordinary, procedural history. The Master observed that the claimants had been very poorly represented in the past: “It is abundantly clear from the succession of retainers and instructions…
We are continuing to look at the interesting inter-lawyer dispute considered in the previous post. This time at the defendant’s pleaded case and its attempt to resile from a clear admission and put an alternative case in its place. (You…
Here we have an interesting dispute between two firms of lawyers. The claimant sued the defendant under a contractual agreement following the transfer of files. What is particularly interesting here is the judge’s observations on the lack of evidence brought…
Here we look at a short judgment on costs. The judge considered whether an indemnity costs should be made and the date from which the indemnity costs order should take effect. There were several factors specific to this case, however…
Earlier today we have looked at two appeals in relation to allocation in housing disrepairs. Each appeal was successful for different reasons. My involvement in one of the appeals has led me, along with Steve Cornforth, a webinar on Allocation…
This is the second case on allocation in housing cases we are looking at today. The result was the same – the judge allowed the claimant’s appeal against allocation to the Small Claims Track. However the route to success was…
Here we look at a judgment where a decision to allocate a housing disrepair case to the Small Claims Track was overturned on appeal. (This is the first of two cases we will look at today). The judgment is useful…
We are continuing with the practice of having a close look at the result of a summary assessment. The judge’s observations in this case are particularly telling, about the basis of assessment, hourly rates, the use of leading counsel and…
This post follows the comments of the judge in a case we looked at last week that “counsel cannot give evidence”. We have seen many examples on this site of judicial criticism that witness evidence is, in fact, commentary, submissions…
This is a Court of Appeal decision that anyone applying for, or resisting, an application for an injunction would benefit from reading. It deals with some of the key issues in relation to injunctions. There was a “serious issue to…
Last week we had a judge discussing the “pay as you go” principle in litigation. Here we have a slight extension of that principle with the judge deciding that the claimants’ conduct of the the trial meant that they should…
Here we have a case where the claimant was found to have made a fundamental error of procedure when seeking to enforce an Employment Tribunal award. An application was made to the wrong court. The County Court was the only court…
We are looking at costs issues in a slightly unusual context. A decision of the Administrative Court on the issue of whether Parliament had given a body the jurisdiction to make a costs order. The judgment also considers some significant…
It is rare for the Court of Appeal to give a detailed judgment on costs. It is even rarer for it to consider the principles relating to interim payments on account of costs. This is what we are looking at…
Here we are looking at a case where the claimant applied for permission to amend its Particulars so it could plead fraud. The application was refused. It is a reminder of the onerous duties on a party when proposing to…
I have had a number of enquiries recently about increasing member numbers for corporate groups. This is possible, the membership system allows this and you can upgrade with the previous payment being taken into account on a pro rata…
In an ideal world all personal injury limitation periods would be three years, and all other action six. However we do not live in an ideal world. The first, and most obvious, place to look at avoiding negligence claims is…
For the second in this series we are looking at a case where the question of whether the claim form had been properly served was raised by the defendant at trial. There were numerous reasons why the defendant’s argument on…
Cases and issues relating to service of proceedings are a regular feature on this site. For ease of reference going forward posts about service will now be in this series of “Service Points”. Here we look at a case that…
There have been numerous cases on the issue of whether there is a requirement to provide a breakdown of the invoice when an expert report has been provided via an agency. Here we another another judgment that considers the issue. …
Here we look at a decision in relation to limitation. The trial judge had to determine whether the claimant’s action was statute barred. If it was she then had to consider whether it was appropriate to exercise the court’s discretion…
It is extremely painful, when a party has won at trial, to have to pay damages back after a successful appeal. The lawyers find it equally painful to have to repay costs. To rub salt into the wounds the successful…
There are relatively few cases where a party appeals on the basis that trial judge was wrong to accept the evidence of one party’s expert witness in preference to the other. There are even fewer cases where such an appeal…
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