There is a very unusual element to the judgment of Mr Justice Kerr in Olsen & Anor v Finansiel Stabilitet A/S [2025] EWHC 42 (KB). The appellants, litigants in person, relied on case law that apparently supported their case. That…
This blog regularly features cases where there have been issues, sometimes major problems, with expert evidence. This webinar takes a close look at the factors that the courts take into account when considering which expert’s view should be accepted. It…
We have looked at the judgment in Aviva Insurance Ltd v Nadeem & Anor [2024] EWHC 3445 (KB) HHJ Tindal (sitting as Judge of the High Court) before, in the context of the failure of committal proceedings following an earlier finding…
In T v T & Ors (Disregard for Procedural Rules, Adjournment) [2025] EWFC 14 (B) Recorder Chandler KC set out a large number of matters on which the applicant had failed to comply with the rules. It is a judgment…
The Court of Appeal decision in Birley & Anor v Heritage Independent Living Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 44 also dealt with an interesting point of procedure. The appellant company had been dissolved shortly before the appeal was heard. The Court of…
We are returning to the decision of the Court of Appeal in Court of Appeal in Birley & Anor v Heritage Independent Living Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 44. The Court upheld a finding that the failure to serve the claim form, or…
It was possible that we could get to the end of January without a claim form case being reported. It was, however, unlikely. A failure to serve was one of the many issues considered by the Court of Appeal in…
We are returning, for the final post (for the time being at least) to the judgment of Cost Judge Rowley in Perrett v Wolferstans LLP [2025] EWHC 68 (SCCO). The judge considered the question of how the costs should be…
In Aviva Insurance Ltd v Nadeem & Anor [2024] EWHC 3445 (KB) HHJ Tindal (sitting as Judge of the High Court) dismissed an action for committal against someone who had been found to be fundamentally dishonest at a personal injury…
We are again returning to the judgment of Cost Judge Rowley in Perrett v Wolferstans LLP [2025] EWHC 68 (SCCO). Here we examine the claimant’s (former client’s) arguments in relation to the deduction of costs breaching the Consumer Rights Act 2015…
In St Francis Group 1 Ltd & Ors v Kelly & Anor [2025] EWHC 125 (SCCO) Costs Judge Leonard struck out large parts of a defendant’s Points of Dispute. The Points of Dispute were inadequately particularised. The judgment contains an…
I am grateful to barrister Thomas Mason for drawing my attention to the judgment of Senior Costs Judge Gordon-Saker in Topalsson GmbH v CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP [2025] EWHC 118 (SCCO). The judge determined that a series of…
In AKS v National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Ltd [2025] EWHC 126 (SCCO) Costs Judge Leonard recounted an extraordinary set of facts where a solicitor had wrongly deducted sums from their client’s damages. The judgment shows that this issue…
Continuing with revisiting guidance from judges in relation to advocacy. Here I advocate (hopefully in a civil way) learning from one judgment. That is the judgment of District Judge Chin in the extraordinary case of Revson -v- Cinque & Cinque in…
In Omanovic v Shamaazi Ltd & Anor [2025] EWHC 110 (KB) Mr Justice Martin Spencer granted the defendants’ application that the terms of settlement with two claimants were inadmissible in the trial of the remaining claimant. On the facts of…
We are continuing with the examination of the judgment of Cost Judge Rowley Perrett v Wolferstans LLP [2025] EWHC 68 (SCCO). Here the judge considered (and rejected) that claimant’s [former client’s] argument that the CFA entered into with the solicitor was…
In Kington SARL v Thames Water Utilities Holdings Ltd (Rev1) [2025] EWHC 84 (Ch) Mr Justice Trower rejected the applicant’s application to rely on expert evidence. The proposed expert report was to “uncertain” and, in any event, unlikely to assist…
Every year this blog covers numerous cases where claimants (and occasionally defendants) come to grief in relation to service of the claim form. The frustrating issue in relation to service issues is that most (if not all) of the problems…
This post is another in the series of repeats of the series on advocacy. This blog has many posts that record cases where judges have been critical of the contents (and usually length) of skeleton arguments. A remedy for most…
There is a strange area of litigation and legal costs where issues of proportionality and common sense appear to totally disappear. – that is former client’s challenges to solicitor’s deductions from damages. We see another example in Perrett v Wolferstans…
In JXX v Archibald [2025] EWHC 69 (SCCO) Costs Judge Rowley considered the – much debated and litigated – issue of whether there needs to be breakdown of an expert’s fee when the expert is instructed through an agency. The…
In Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police v Woodcock [2025] EWCA Civ 13 the Court of Appeal considered many significant issues relating to the civil liability of the police force. However this blog, being this blog, will defer consideration of those…
Detailed assessment usually takes place after attempts at settlement of costs have failed and there are some major differences between the parties. The webinar uses examples from reported cases to show where failures and omissions by the receiving party has…
In Packer v Packer [2025] EWHC 27 (Ch) HHJ Paul Matthews (sitting as a High Court Judge) considered issues of costs after a claimant had amended a Reply to withdraw an allegation of fraud. The judge did not accept the…
I am grateful to Chris Barnes KC for allowing me to rely on his note of a post he put on LinkedIn yesterday. It relates to the question of whether a court can “convert” Part 8 proceedings issued for the…
We are continuing this series looking at issues of misconduct in the assessment process by looking at the decision of District Judge Griffith in Kerins -v- Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (Birmingham, 31st July 2015). The claimant’s costs were reduced by…
In Manchester Property Development Holdings & Anor v Kuit Steinart Levy LLP [2025] EWHC 35 (Comm) Dame Clare Moulder DBE granted the defendant’s application for an adjournment of an imminent trial because Leading Counsel became unexpectedly ill. There was insufficient…
Recent cases on the issue of costs being reduced, or disallowed, due to the conduct of the assessment proceedings have led me to review the cases on this topic. This is the first in a series of posts about the…
This post revisits the detailed article by Judge Stephen J. Dwyer, Leonard J. Feldman & Ryan P. McBridet called “How to Write, Edit, and Review Persuasive Briefs: Seven Guidelines from One Judge and Two Lawyers”. Remember the purpose of this…
There are three webinars on costs this January of interest to most litigators. The first deals with the summary assessment of costs; the second the role of the litigator in detailed assessments and the third on the topic of deducting…
Today we are revisiting an article by Master David Cook “Advocacy before the QB Masters – Some Do’s and Dont’s” and it reminded me why I wrote the original series. These are invaluable sources of advice and information. Appearing before Masters…
In Smith v McAlpine [2024] EWHC 3408 (KB) Senior Master Cook varied an order for costs that had been made after an application had been considered on the papers. After considering further submissions he found that his original order, that…
An updated set of Additional Tables have been added to The Ogden Tables today to include the 0.5% rate that came into force in January. THE UPDATES The updates can be found on this link. … Enjoying this post? Become a…
In Howells v Newport City Council [2025] EWHC 22 (Ch) HHJ Keyser KC granted summary judgment to the defendant council in an unusual case. The claimant was seeking to recover a computer hard drive which had been put in the…
Periodically I revisit posts on this blog to see whether they remain of relevance – this post (from January 2016) does. It sets out ten key points in making an application for relief from sanctions. Every point made nine years…
I am grateful to barrister Nadia Whittaker for sending me a copy of the judgment of HHJ Baddeley in Lochrie -v- Edwards (County Court in Sheffield 07/01/2025), a copy of which is available here. Final Lochrie v Edwards Judgment G48YJ355 …
HMCTS have sent out a letter informing practitioners of changes to the telephone arrangements in Leeds Family Court and Civil County Court in Leeds from the 22nd January 2025. Note that the Business and Property Court is not affected. “New…
Carrying on with our revisiting this series we are having a short recap. Here were look at 10 key pieces of advice arising from the series so far. (There are plenty more to come). 1. ADVICE FROM CANADA – MANNERS…
Last year saw another – large – batch of cases relating to service of the claim form. Mistakes continue to be made and things have not changed much over the years. Below is a revised post first written ten years…
In Director of Public Prosecutions v Surin [2025] EWHC 10 (KB) Mr Justice Mould considered issues relating to the service of witness evidence by the defendant in the claimant’s application for summary judgment. The unusual element of this action was…
We are revisiting to the series on “Advocacy – the Judge’s view”. This particular post was originally inspired by a search term that arrived on this this blog “Can a solicitor dress casually in county court”. This caused a lot…
I am speaking about costs for housing lawyers on the 10th January 2025 in a webinar arranged by Steve Cornforth. Booking details can be found by emailing Steve on stevecornforthconsultancy@gmail.com THE WEBINAR This webinar looks at how housing…
The question of when a hearing has been adjourned and when time starts running for applying to the trial judge for permission to appeal was considered by Mr Justice Freedman in Mex Group Worldwide Limited v Stewart Owen Ford & Ors [2024]…
I am grateful to Navid Hakimmaani, Consultant Solicitor at Collins Benson Goldhill LLP, for sending me a copy of the judgment of HHJ Mark Gargan in Smith -v- AXA Insurance UK PlC & Spectra Drive Limited (24th December 2024), a…
January 1st sees the introduction of the indexed hourly rates. They are published on the Gov.UK website here. THE RATES FOR 2025 Grade Fee earner London 1 London 2 London 3 National 1 National 2 A Solicitors and…
In Hirachand v Hirachand & Anor [2024] UKSC 43 the Supreme Court dismissed the idea that an award to a claimant could be increased to take account of the fact that the claimant was liable to pay a success fee…
We are returning to the judgment of HHJ Kelly (sitting as a High Court Judge) in MJF v University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust [2024] EWHC 3156 (KB). This time we are looking at the judge’s observations about the preparation…
We are returning to the issue of the difficulties that can be caused by the use of electronic signatures on witness statements. The dangers involved can be seen clearly in the decision of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in SRA -v-…
As 2024 draws to a close this is a good time to look back at the year in terms of civil procedure. There have been 463 posts to date this year amounting to 938 thousand words (I haven’t counted them…
In Waterrower (UK) Limited v Liking Ltd (t/a Topiom) [2024] EWHC 3049 (IPEC) Campbell Forsyth (sitting as a High Court Judge) observed that there were a number of issues with a witness statement served on behalf of the defendant. There…
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