‘A widespread consensus has emerged that Lord Justice Jackson is backing away from extending fixed recoverable costs to cases worth up to £250,000, Litigation Futures can report – although what level he is now looking at is unknown.’
Litigation Futures, 23rd may 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘The Co-op has been fined £400,000 over the death of a man who slipped on water leaking from a faulty sandwich chiller.’
BBC News, 22nd May 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A High Court judge has accused costs lawyers of “abuse of the cost budgeting process” following an “unjustifiably low” estimate of the other side’s costs.’
OUT-LAW.com, 18th May 2017
Source: www.out-law.com
‘In 2002, Mr. Dammermann entered into a mortgage with a bank. He defaulted on that mortgage and LPA receivers were appointed. The receivers appointed Lanyon Bowdler to conduct the sale of the property. On sale of the property Lanyon rendered a bill to the receivers that was paid and became part of the secured liability. Mr. Dammermann issued proceedings contesting the legal fees charged.’
Zenith PI Blog, 17th May 2017
Source: www.zenithpi.wordpress.com
‘This case concerned the issue of whether or not claimants (or their solicitors) should be obliged to repay Stage 1 costs of £400 + VAT (under the “old” Portal rules) in claims which did not then proceed to Stage 2.’
Zenith PI Blog, 16th May 2017
Source: www.zenithpi.wordpress.com
‘The Court of Appeal has ruled that solicitors should be able to claim protocol costs for claims which did not go beyond the first stage.’
Law Society’s Gazette, 16th May 2017
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘Solicitors who received the £400 stage 1 fixed-costs payment due under the original version of the RTA protocol do not have to repay the money even though no action was then taken on their cases, the Court of Appeal has ruled.’
Litigation Futures, 16th May 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘It is far from unknown, in my own experience of costs management hearings, for a party which does not expect to recover any costs (for example, a defendant in a case where liability has been admitted) to serve a very low costs budget.’
Zenith PI Blog, 16th May 2017
Source: www.zenithpi.wordpress.com
‘A defendant who offered very low sums in their budget discussion report in the hope that the court may compromise in the middle of the polarised figures put forward by the two sides is guilty of “an abuse of the cost budgeting process”, a High Court judge has ruled.’
Litigation Futures, 15th May 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘It is trite that a court will carefully scrutinise the parties’ behaviour when assessing costs in civil disputes. There is now a rich body of case law which provides judicial guidance on the courts’ general approach in assessing unreasonable behaviour when considering whether to make adverse costs orders. Further judicial guidance on assessing unreasonable behaviour has recently been given by the Court of Appeal in Dammermann v Lanyon Bowdler LLP [2017] EWCA Civ 269. In that case the court provided important guidance on the ‘unreasonable behaviour’ test for ordering costs in the small claims court.’
Law Society’s Gazette, 15th May 2017
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘The High Court has agreed to order a claimant to pay additional security for costs, even though the ‘material change’ in circumstances behind the defendant’s application were known to the judge who made the original order.’
Litigation Futures, 15th May 2017
Source: www.litigationfuture.com
‘Government plans to impose fixed costs on clinical negligence cases worth up to £25,000 “will prevent many cases being brought”, the Civil Justice Council (CJC) has warned.’
Litigation Futures, 11th May 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘An insurer has failed to convince a judge that a medical expert who agreed to cover its costs in a whiplash case should be ordered to pay on the indemnity basis.’
Litigation Futures, 9th May 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘The High Court has upheld a ruling that disapplied qualified one-way costs-shifting (QOCS) under the little-used exception relating to “mixed” claims, and in what is said to be the first case of its type, where the personal injury (PI) element was found to be a relatively minor part of the wider claim.’
Litigation Futures, 9th May 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘A man has been ordered to pay Hertsmere Borough Council £100,000 in legal costs after he conducted a long campaign of harassment against councillors and officers.’
Local Government Lawyer, 4th May 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘BBC bosses say Sir Cliff Richard has spent “grossly unreasonable” amounts on lawyers after complaining about reports naming him as a suspected sex offender and taking legal action.’
Daily Telegraph, 4th May 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has called for a “predictable claim process” for clinical negligence actions if the government goes ahead with its plan to impose fixed costs for cases worth up to £25,000.’
Litigation futures, 2nd May 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘A crowdfunding campaign to judicially review a partial hospital closure in Devon has won backing from Honition Town Council’
Local Government Lawyer, 26th April 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A young farm worker who threw a newborn calf to the floor and repeatedly stamped on it before kicking its mother in the head blamed his behaviour on breaking up with his girlfriend months earlier.’
Daily Telegraph, 26th April 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The Medical Protection Society (MPS) has called on the government to be more “bold” with its proposals to introduced fixed costs for clinical negligence cases by including cases worth up to £250,000 – 10 times the proposed limit.’
Litigation Futures, 25th April 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
