My attention has recently been drawn to the judgment of HHJ Ralton in Darnley -v- Cornish 2021 WL 04760420. The judge, on appeal, overturned a finding that a claimant, who had misled the court as to ownership of a bicycle…
In Brake & Anor v Guy & Ors [2022] EWHC 1911 (Ch) HHJ Paul Matthews (sitting as a High Court Judge). Considered the appropriate hourly rate to be applied on an application. Although costs were being assessed on an indemnity…
I have written more about applications for permission to appeal in the past few weeks than in the previous nine years. The Court of Appeal judgment in Ingenious Games LLP & Ors v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs…
There is another aspect of the judgment in Omya UK Ltd v Andrews Excavations Ltd & Anor [2022] EWHC 1882 (TCC) that is worth considering. The unsuccessful defendants applied for permission to appeal to the trial judge at the hearing…
I am grateful to Barrister Leslie Keegan for their note of the judgment of Master Cook in Buckingham -v- Elneil (15th July 2022)*. The Master refused the defendant’s application to set aside a default judgment. The defendant did not have…
In Omya UK Ltd v Andrews Excavations Ltd & Anor [2022] EWHC 1882 (TCC) Mr Roger Ter Haar QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, found that a claimant’s offer that was some 1.15% less than the sum awarded…
In September I am presenting a number of webinars with the theme of “avoiding problems”. These are avoiding undersettlement: avoiding procedural pitfalls and avoiding problems with limitation. “AVOIDING UNDERSETTLEMENT: A GUIDE FOR PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS” 19th September 2022 …
In North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group v E (Covid Vaccination) (Rev1) [2022] EWCOP 15 Mr Justice Poole disallowed an application by a respondent in relation to expert evidence. The expert had been instructed without compliance with the procedural rules in…
The previous post about the judgment in AMRA Leasing Ltd v DAC Aviation (EA) Ltd & Ors [2022] EWHC 1718 (Comm) involved a case where the defendants had waited for two months to serve an application. This was not a critical…
In AMRA Leasing Ltd v DAC Aviation (EA) Ltd & Ors [2022] EWHC 1718 (Comm) Mr Justice Jacobs refused the defendants’ application to set aside a default judgment. The defendants’ delay in making the application, and then a further delay…
In Tinkler v Esken Ltd (Costs) [2022] EWHC 1802 (Ch) Mr Justice Leech ordered indemnity costs against a claimant who, in essence, attempted to relitigate a case he had lost on previously. “A principal difference between an order for…
I am grateful to Aled Morris from Horwich Farrelly for sending me a transcript of the judgment of HHJ Murdock in Hawkins -v- Holmes (County Court at Leicester, 1st April 2022). It is a case where the court found the…
NB THIS DECISION WAS OVERTURNED BY THE DIVISIONAL COURT. SEE THE LATER POST ON THE DECISION HERE. In Abbott & 3,499 Ors v Ministry of Defence [2022] EWHC 1807 (QB) Master Davison rejected the claimant’s arguments that it was permissible…
There were complicated factors involved in the judgment of Deputy Master Marsh in Croke & Anor v National Westminster Bank Plc & Ors [2022] EWHC 1367 (Ch), however the action failed because the claimant was one day late in serving…
A defendant is entitled to make an early Part 36 offer. This, undoubtedly causes difficulties for many claimants. The rules relating to late acceptance are fairly unsympathetic. Nor is it possible to for a claimant to make a prospective application…
In Mabrouk v Murray [2022] EWCA Civ 960 the Court of Appeal refused the defendant’s application for permission to appeal in a case where the defendant failed to attend the trial. The Court of Appeal dismissed the application under CPR…
The claimant’s failure to provide costs schedules, and eventual compliance, can be seen in a series of judgments by HHJ Emma Kelly in cases brought by North Warwickshire Borough Council. The cases move from non-compliance to attempted compliance and eventual…
One of the most imprudent things to do in litigation is to let a court order be made, not comply and then respond by arguing that the order should never have been made anyway. We see an example of this…
The judgment of Mr Justice Foxton in Bank of America Europe DAC v CITTA Metropolitana Di Milano [2022] EWHC 1544 (Comm) serves of a salutary reminder (to some) of the existence of the automatic stay in civil proceedings. A claimant…
In the final post of this series I have chosen a post from January 2022. There are many common themes on this blog: relief from sanctions; service of the claim form; Part 36; witness statements, among them. However it is…
In Municipio De Mariana & Ors v BHP Group (UK) Ltd & Anor [2022] EWCA Civ 951 the Court of Appeal overturned a decision to strike out a claim. The Court doubted whether an action could ever be described…
In Field v Del Vecchio [2022] EWHC 1117 (Ch) HHJ Paul Matthews (sitting as a High Court judge) considered whether committal proceedings had been properly served. The papers had been put through a letterbox in a flat when the defendant…
In Financial Conduct Authority v London Property Investments & Ors [2022] EWHC 1041 (Ch) Mr Justice Trower considered whether a defendant, debarred from participating in proceedings, could play any part in the trial of those proceedings. It also highlights…
In August 2021 the post “Lawyers and Holidays: Avoiding Stress – Advice from all over the world” proved a popular topic. This is a good time of year to repeat it. THE POST FROM 2021 This is the time of…
In over three decades of writing about civil procedure I cannot recall any cases about costs following a permission to appeal hearing. There are now two cases this week. In Kerseviciene v Quadri & Anor (Costs) [2022] EWHC 1757 (QB)…
In the judgment today in Doyle -v- M&D Foundations & Building Services Limited [2022] EWCA CIV 927 the Court of Appeal found that it was possible for parties to contract out of the fixed costs provisions of the protocols. THE…
2020 was a very strange year for us all. In March the Covid problems started to hit and, for many months, this blog dealt primarily with issues relating to litigation and lockdown. The busiest day ever on this blog was…
In Chiswick International Holdings Ltd v Oakvest Ltd & Ors [2022] EWHC 799 (Comm) HHJ Pelling QC (sitting as a High Court Judge) considered the appropriate order for costs when a party had offered security in an application for security…
I am selecting a post from 2019 and we are now looking at one made with a little help from my friends. I started a series on “Advice to a Newly Qualified Litigator”. The fourth in the series was a…
In Candey Ltd v Tonstate Group Ltd & Ors [2022] EWCA Civ 936 the Court of Appeal held that a Damages Based Agreement cannot be used between a solicitor and a defendant who did not have a counterclaim. For a…
In Peterborough City Council v K, L, M, N and P & Ors [2022] EWFC 61Mr Justice Poole overturned a decision making a non-party costs against a local authority. A non-party costs order could not be used as a device…
Pro bono cost orders have been extended to tribunals. The position is explained in a short post by the Access to Justice Foundation. The ability to make such orders has been extended to tribunals. GUIDANCE FROM THE ACCESS…
A prominent QC tweeted recently that, when he was waiting for a court judgment to be delivered, his greatest fear was that the case would end up in the “Proving Things” series on this blog. Today we look a post…
In CJ & Ors Wiltshire Police [2022] EWHC 1661 (QB) Mr Justice Martin Spencer extended the limitation period in a claim under the Human Rights Act. Although the claimants were ultimately unsuccessful there are important observations in relation to the…
In Novartis AG & Anor v Teva UK Ltd & Ors [2022] EWCA Civ 775 Lord Justice Birss refused to order costs when a respondent to an appeal attended at a permission to appeal hearing. THE CASE The judge heard…
There are many cases in which judges make observations about costs which merit wider circulation. This series looks at those kinds of matters. It starts by looking at the observations of Mr Justice Foxton in Hotel Portfolio II UK Ltd…
Choosing one case from each year is not an easy task. We have reached 2017 and I have selected two posts which relate to the same case. A claimant sought damages of £15 million but failed to prove it had…
In Rushbrooke UK Ltd v 4 Designs Concept Ltd [2022] EWHC 1687 (Ch) HHJ Paul Matthews (sitting as a High Court Judge) made a wasted costs order against a firm of solicitors who had acted for a limited company without…
Continuing with the selection of post from each year of the blog I have reproduced below a post from February 2016. This post was unusual in that I saw a post from a firm of solicitors, Darlingtons, and asked permission…
In John Poyser & Co Ltd -v- Spencer [2022] EWHC 1678 (QB) Mr Justice Morris (sitting with Senior Costs Judge Gordon-Saker as an assessor) overturned a finding that CPR 44.11 applies to solicitor and own client assessments. The practical result…
I am grateful to Aidan Robertson QC for sending me a copy of the decision of Civil Appeals Officer Master Bancroft-Rimmer in the case of Microsoft Corporation -v- JJH Enterprises. It relates to the interplay of the Commercial Court Guide…
My, highly personal, selection of posts from each year moves on to 2015. Here we look at a blog post from February 2015 about the decision in Woodland and Maxwell. This is a case that was subject to much interlocutory…
I have written before about the decision of Senior Master Fontaine in Andrews & Ors v Kronospan Ltd [2022] EWHC 479 (QB) where the claimants permission to rely on an expert witness was withdrawn because of conduct in relation to…
In May I reported on the decision in Edwards (& others) -v- Slater and Gordon UK Limited [2022] EWHC 1091. There was an application for permission to appeal that judgment. Permission was refused. Full details can be found here THE CASE…
I am grateful to Jodie Davis from Irwin Mitchell for sending me a note of a judgment given in a case relating to non-service of the Budget discussion report. The note is reproduced in full below. There is an interesting…
I am “reprinting” a post from every year that this blog has been going. Today we have reached 2014. A post on drafting witness statements and the asking of leading questions. This is an ongoing issue. The drastic measures introduced…
People were very kind about the 9th anniversary of the blog. I have decided to extend the celebrations slightly by taking a post from each of the nine years. This was the second ever post on the 25th June 2013. …
In Macaulay v Karim & Anor [2022] EWHC 1270 (SCCO) Senior Costs Judge Gordon-Saker found that a legally aided claimant had the protection of QOCS. A defendant who had a costs order in its favour could not enforce that order…
This morning we looked at the case of EVX v Smith [2022] EWHC 1607 (SCCO), a case about hourly rates. The costs judge making an observation that £315 – £320 an hour was the appropriate rate for a Grade A fee…
In EVX v Smith [2022] EWHC 1607 (SCCO) Costs Judge Brown held that the hourly rates charged by a solicitor to their own client are subject to review when the court is considering the amount that the claimant should pay…
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