Costs

The High Court has ordered a party that missed the deadline to fix the date of a case management conference by more than four years to pay security for costs as a sanction.

The High Court has condemned the costs of a straightforward breach of confidence case as “completely out of proportion”. The focus had wrongly been put on had been invested, rather than lost

There is no general rule preventing costs being awarded against children, a High Court judge has said. Mr Justice Morgan said the case law on the issue did not present a “clear or coherent picture” on the issue.

The High Court has rejected a defendant’s request to revise his costs budget upwards, saying that the extra costs came from matters he either should have anticipated or brought on himself.

There should be a presumption that tribunals will order employers to pay employees’ costs if they lose a discrimination case in which sexual harassment has been alleged, MPs said today.

The first High Court judge to give guidance on applying the proportionality test has overturned a costs master’s ruling and slashed the costs he allowed by more than two-thirds.

Claimant and defendant lawyers have accused each other of behaviour which inflates costs, in their responses to the government consultation on extending fixed recoverable costs.

A judge has refused to award claimants an uplift on their costs after beating a part 36 offer restricted just to the hourly rates in dispute.

The Court of Appeal has awarded successful appellants just 18% of their costs in overturning an earlier costs order.“ They sought £71,000 costs of a hearing against a costs order for £23,000.

Clinical negligence claims could be handled by a tribunal under a new test for liability of whether the patient has suffered ‘reasonably avoidable injury’, Sir Rupert Jackson has proposed.