
The £55 court fee that should have been £10,000
The fee to bring an unlimited additional claim should be £10,000, rather than the £55 the court office had advised one of the parties in bitter litigation involving two law firms, a judge has ruled.

25% uplift is usual for outdated guideline rates, says judge
The conventional approach in relation to the guideline hourly rates is to uplift them by about 25% to reflect the effects of inflation since they were set in 2010, a High Court judge has said.

Law firm cannot recover £1m costs of advertising group action
A law firm spending £1m on advertising for claimants to join its British Airways data breach group action cannot recover it from the airline in the event of winning, the High Court has ruled.

Solicitor was “author of own misfortune” in failed costs claims
A solicitor was the “author of his own misfortune” by failing to document what he said was a client’s agreement to pay a higher fee for a more experienced barrister, a costs judge has ruled.

‘Vulnerability’ added to overriding objective and costs rules
Taking account of the vulnerability of parties and witnesses is to be added to the overriding objective as well as the factors used to determine the proportionality of costs.

Court orders £8m interim costs payment in huge group action
A High Court judge has ordered an £8m interim costs payment after striking out a huge group action and deprecated the claimants’ solicitor accusation that the defendants had used “legal chicanery”.

Frenkel Topping enters costs market with £9m double acquisition
Financial adviser Frenkel Topping has entered the costs market by acquiring Partners in Costs and A&M Bacon for £9m, as it looks to “drive consolidation” of the pre-settlement field in serious injury cases.

One day late acceptance of part 36 offer puts costs in play
An automatic entitlement to costs under part 36 only arises if the offer is accepted within the ‘relevant period’, the High Court has ruled. A day later and they can then be argued before the court.