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…
I am grateful to barrister Ethan Riley for sending me a copy of the transcript of the judgment we are looking at today. This relates to whether the court has power to award a party pre-allocation costs that are occurred…
If ever a judgment showed how difficult litigation can be it is the costs decision we are looking at here. A defendant made an application to strike out a case on the grounds of inadequate pleadings. That application would, without…
There are changes coming into force at 11.00 tomorrow. There are changes to PD 51R and PD51ZB. (Set your alarm clocks early tomorrow – these changes come into force – at 11.00 am…) THE CHANGES TO TO THE PRACTICE DIRECTION:…
We are continuing with looking at the consequences of a party failing to call witnesses, or, as in this case, give no evidence of fact at all. In this case the judge had no difficulty in stating his views as…
Today we are looking at a case where the judge considered whether adverse inferences should be drawn when a relevant expert was not called to give evidence at trial. This issue of what matters the court can properly conclude when…
It is always interesting when we get to see “round 2” of a decision in relation to an application and appeal. It is even more interesting when we see the costs orders made and the figures involved. This case has…
Cases about breaches of embargos on draft judgments keep appearing with surprising frequency. We have another one here. The judgment emphasises the nature of the advice the lawyer must give to the client. Not only must be draft judgment not…
Here we are looking at a case from the family jurisdiction. Slightly different rules apply, however the overall principles are the same as in the CPR. The judge had to consider whether to grant permission to an applicant to rely…
We are continuing to examine the case looked at in the previous post. The claimant, faced with an application that the amended Particulars of Claim did not comply with the requirements of a court order, or the rules, made an…
Anyone drafting, or contemplating drafting, a pleading in a clinical negligence claim (indeed any type of claim) would be best advised to read, in detail, the judgment we are considering today. The judge went through an amended Particulars of Claim…
Today I attended the funeral of District Judge George Branchflower. I have written briefly about him before. At his funeral we heard tributes from those who knew him best including a touching tribute from his daughter and a wonderful song…
Here we have a consideration of what the court’s approach on summary assessment when it considers that leading counsel should not have been instructed. (Silk worms at work. They did not weave their magic when it came to the assessment…
Here we look at a judgment relation to proportionality and the assessment of costs. The claimant’s costs had been substantially reduced after a three day assessment but the judge found that the total sum was still disproportional. The judge could…
Here we look at a decision not about the conduct of experts but the way in which the experts were instructed and failure to comply with pre-action protocols. On the face of it this is a decision of major importance…
There are limits on the length of skeleton arguments. These are often exceeded. Here the judge observes that if skeletons are going to be lengthy then the advocates should assist the court by providing an index or list of contents. …
Yesterday I had an enquiry about the internal search function on this site. In particular whether it used Boolean operators. It doesn’t but there is a “work around” discussed below. On a separate issue I also recorded a webinar on…
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…
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