Call for pre-assessment protocol for costs
A pre-assessment protocol for costs – which would require the receiving party to serve a costs summary – could help reduce the costs of the process, a new report has suggested.
Costs lawyers call for review of guideline hourly rates
Costs lawyers say there is an urgent need to review the guideline hourly rates, a survey has found. The poll also showed continuing signs of improvement in solicitors sticking to their budgets.
Supreme Court to review equitable lien ruling
The Supreme Court is to review a controversial ruling that a law firm handling uncontested flight delay claims was not conducting litigation and so did not have an equitable lien over the compensation.
Judge orders wife and mother-in-law to pay £12m costs bill
The High Court has ordered the wife and mother-in-law of a Kazakh businessman, the subject of a “very substantial fraud claim”, to pay the claimants’ costs bill of over £12m.
“Reasonable” for LiP not to understand obligations
Litigants in person who “do little to promote their cases until they are absolutely forced to” and do not “understand, let alone research” their obligations can still be regarded as acting reasonably.
Training route to becoming a costs lawyer reopens
The Association of Costs Lawyers has reopened its training scheme for the first time in three years, while also making it more straightforward for lawyers to gain the costs lawyer qualification.
CA: Part 36 offer did not contract out of fixed costs
A defendant who settles a claim that leaves the RTA protocol with a part 36 offer including the usual wording about paying costs on the standard basis is not contracting out of fixed costs, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
One-line explanation “enough for budget decision”
A costs budget decision that said simply “instruction of leading counsel is not approved” without explaining further was sufficient in the circumstances, the High Court has ruled.
