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…
We are looking at another aspect of the judgment of HHJ Pearce in Pitalia & Anor v NHS Commissioning Board [2022] EWHC 1636_2 (QB). The judge took the time to note that none of the claimant’s witness statements complied with…
In Pitalia & Anor v NHS Commissioning Board [2022] EWHC 1636_2 (QB) His Honour Judge Pearce dismissed a claimant’s appeal in a case where the claim form had not been validly served. The defendant had made an error in that…
This blog has now reached its 9th year. I have resisted the temptation to do a full scale review (I’m saving that for the 10th). I am just looking at edited highlights. FACTS AND FIGURES There are 4,761 posts on…
In Balaj & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 1627 (SCCO) Costs Judge James considered, and rejected, the defendant’s arguments that the claimant’s conduct should lead to costs being reduced. However the costs of the…
In Gee, Re The Estate of [2022] EWHC 1590 (Ch) HHJ Paul Matthews (sitting as a High Court Judge) considered an argument that costs incurred by the claimant in an attempt to prevent the breach of a court order, and…
The judgment of Master Rowley in Lyle & Anor v Bedborough & Anor [2022] EWHC 1628 (SCCO) gives an insight into the process of detailed assessment of costs. The Master considered the complexity of the case, the use of counsel…
In Mathieu v Hinds & Anor (No. 2: Costs) [2022] EWHC 1624 (QB) Mrs Justice Hill reduced a claimant’s recoverable costs. An initial 10% reduction was made because of the pursuit of a claim for provisional damages which was not…
In Karanja, R (On the Application Of) v University of the West of Scotland [2022] EWHC 1520 (Admin) Michael Ford QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, found that a claim form had not been served when it was…
In Golubovich v Golubovich [2022] EWHC 1605 (Ch) Mr Justice Edwin Johnson refused a defendant permission to appeal from the decision made in a summary assessment of costs. There had been procedural unfairness in the way that the assessment was…
In Khan v Mehmood [2022] EWCA Civ 791 the Court of Appeal held that the 10% uplift in s.44(6) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 applied to damages for breach of a repairing covenant. “……
In Sheeran & Ors v Chokri & Ors [2022] EWHC 1528 (Ch) Mr Justice Zacaroli rejected an argument that conduct during an action should lead to costs being disallowed. “This, however, is to turn reality on its head. The…
This webinar is designed to look at those areas of fatal accident litigation where a lawyer can be negligent, or run into significant problems. Booking details are available here. TOPICS TO BE COVERED Important issues prior to death, the…
In Woodger v Hallas [2022] EWHC 1561 (QB) Mr Justice Julian Knowles overturned a decision of the Circuit Judge that the usual principles of a finding of fundamental dishonesty should not apply to the claimant. The judgment involves a consideration…
There is a short passage in the judgment of HHJ Paul Matthews (sitting as a High Court Judge) in Blacklion Law LLP v Amira Nature Foods Ltd & Anor [2022] EWHC 1500 (Ch) that shows one of the dangers of…
It is also useful to issue periodic reminders of the dangers that are involved when a solicitor signs a document on behalf of their client. Here we look at several cases and the rules themselves. The observations of the…
I am grateful to John De Waal QC for pointing out the procedural aspects of the judgment of Mr Justice Edwin Johnson in Valley View Health Centre (a firm) & Ors v NHS Property Services Ltd [2022] EWHC 1393 (Ch)….
In Curtiss & Ors v Zurich Insurance Plc & Anor (Costs) [2022] EWHC 1514 (TCC) HHJ Keyser QC (sitting as a Judge of the High Court) ordered the applicant to pay 75% the respondents’ costs on the indemnity basis. The…
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