Costs

A personal injury claimant who lied over whether he had credit cards which could have been used to pay for a replacement car, instead of credit hire, was fundamentally dishonest, the High Court has ruled.

The working group charged with agreeing fixed recoverable costs for clinical negligence claims worth up to £25,000 has been unable to do so, although it has made progress on process changes.

The High Court has issued what has been described as a “novel” conditional order for an interim payments on account of costs in the event of a party not complying with an unless order.

A High Court judge has urged a review of the guideline hourly rates, saying the current levels are “not helpful” when deciding what reasonable rates should be in 2019.

A change to the CPR coming into force on 1 October should provide clearer guidance on the cut-off between budgeted and incurred costs, it has been argued.

The business which helps clients sue their former law firms for excessive charging in personal injury cases has now recovered more than £100,000 and is expecting major growth in the coming year.

There is no rule that communications treated as ‘without prejudice’ despite not being labelled as such cannot be referred to when considering costs, the High Court has ruled.

A majority of costs lawyers think there is a business opportunity in helping unhappy clients challenge their solicitors’ bills, a survey has found. It also showed continuing signs of improvement in budgeting.

A judge has upheld the striking out of a £2.6m personal injury claim which remained in the RTA portal for almost four years before the claimants admitted it should be transferred.

Costs budgeting is not “inevitable” in high-value injury cases and lawyers should consider whether the best approach may be to dispense with it altogether, a leading practitioner has suggested.