The Guideline Hourly Rates changed on 1st January 2026. These are set out below. The 2025 and 2024 rates can be found underneath. Guideline hourly rates 2026 (with previous year’s rates in brackets) Grade Fee Earner London 1 London 2…
This section looks at decisions in relation to relief from sanctions and the general principles of CPR 3.9. Often there are links to the decisions themselves, together with links to posts on this blog. CASES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER May 2026…
In a judgment today the Court of Appeal have overturned a High Court decision that was (partially) in favour of a solicitor who had sought judicial review of a decision of the Legal Ombudsman. The Court has restored the Ombudsman’s…
The previous post dealt with a case where a participant in a relatively small dispute about shared childcare was found guilty of putting “deepfake” evidence before the courts. This provides a wake up call to us all that our clients,…
We have looked at the problems caused by Artificial Intelligence many times on this blog. Practitioners also have to be aware of the possibility that the evidence they are given by their own clients, or used by the other side,…
Here we look at a case where a defendant local authority had to apply for relief from sanctions in relation to breaches of court orders and directions. The judge was critical of the defendant’s conduct, pointing out that there was…
Here we have an unusual example of the Court of Appeal overturning a decision granting permission to amend a statement of case (in this case a counterclaim). The Court of Appeal held that the pleading did not give the information…
We are continuing with our examination of the updated SRA Guidance on Effective Supervision. This is a relatively short section but of considerable importance. There is a series of checklists on this topic (these are produced for this blog and…
Regular readers will know that a recurring theme of this blog is the number of ways in which a case can go wrong, and how often the damage is done by something that should have been straightforward. A multiplier, an…
Here we look at a case where the court made an order for indemnity costs. The defendant had failed to engage fully in the litigation process and, importantly, failed to respond to the claimant’s offer to mediate. The Master was…
The SRA’s new Guidance on Effective Supervision represents one of the most significant developments in the regulation of litigation practice in recent years.The guidance introduces enhanced expectations around supervision, delegation, escalation, professional judgment, accountability and quality assurance. It also carries…
This blog has been looking at cases relating to civil procedure for 13 years this month. We have seen many hundreds (possibly thousands) of cases where things have gone badly wrong, particularly in relation to procedure and limitation. Most of…
Some significant changes are taking place in court fees on the 13th July 2026. Some 170 fees will increase in line with inflation. Four sets of fees will be reduced to reflect reductions in their underlying costs. In addition there…
There are hundreds of applications made each date to courts up and down the land. Pausing for a second, how many of those applications are made without the solicitor looking at the rules and Practice Direction relating to making applications….
Here we are looking at another case where the court considered the burden of proof in an application for security for costs. In this case the claimant was ordered to provide security. An interesting feature is the identified failure of…
You could study the Fatal Accidents Act for a long time, decades even, and have no clue at all as to how damages are assessed. This is because the relevant principles are in set out in case law. A detailed…
The earlier post on time estimates has prompted me to revisit the issue with some practical suggestions for practitioners. Here we have a review of the cases, the key points that emerge and a series of checklists of the issues…
Here we look at a judgment given today which highlights the importance of considering the existence of pre-existing insurance policies when solicitors are acting for a claimant. The judge held that the solicitors had made inadequate enquiries in relation to…
We have looked at the issue of accurate time estimates many times. Here we have a case where the parties agreed to a time estimate for a hearing that, the judge found, was clearly inaccurate. The judge observed that this…
Yesterday I wrote about the SRA Guidance in relation to choosing supervisors. Despite supervision being central to a well run, and profitable, legal practice there is little guidance given to lawyers on how to go about being a good supervisor. …
Here we look back to a post from June 2016. It is a summary of guidance given by a Canadian Judge. The link to the original post on the matter is now defunct. However the summary given here gives the…
Here we look at some comments made yesterday by the Court of Appeal. The court allowed an appeal by a defendant in a personal injury case. The case was heard by a Deputy District Judge. The court was clear that…
We have looked many times at issues relating to the weight a judge gives to a witness statement when the witness does not, in fact, attend trial. We have an example here. The judge found that there was no good…
Here we have an unusual case about service of the claim form, with an unusual result. The judge reiterated the principle that a claimant must serve a sealed copy of the claim form, even though this was extremely difficult under…
Here we are continuing our look at the new SRA Guidance on Effective Supervision. Today we are looking at the section on “Choosing Supervisors” . There are five paragraphs on this in the Guidance. However this issue is fundamental to…
Here we have applications to strike out by both sides for alleged non-compliance with a court order. The judge described the defendants’ application as “aggressive” and the claimant’s application as a “tit for tat” application. Ultimately, however, we are looking…
We have been looking at the new SRA Guidance on Effective Supervision over the past week. This webinar will look at the key points of the guidance for litigators, in particular and provide a series of checklists and templates for…
Here we have an unusual case where the trial judge’s findings in favour of the defendant were overturned on appeal. One particular feature of this case is the fact that the claimant relied on a statute that was actually in…
An assessment of the degree to which a judge can disbelieve witness evidence in writing plays a major part in the judgement we are looking at here. The claimant’s witness gave evidence that it was solvent and would be able…
We are continuing our examination of the SRA Guidance on Effective Supervision by looking at what are identified as the “Key themes”. Here we look at the central points, the relevant guidance itself and then 10 checklists which help ensure…
Here the court considered an argument that the indemnity principle meant that an unsuccessful respondent was not liable to pay the appellant’s costs. It was clear that the fees in question had been paid by family members and not the…
I don’t know if there are many shipping lawyers who read this site. Here we have a very niche part of a judgment in relation to Admiralty Court procedure. The appeal was originally adjourned because there appeared to be a…
Applications to withdraw from admissions often give rise to controversy. Here a defendant to a clinical negligence made such an application very late and on the grounds that there had been a change of expert and thus a change of…
Here we look at a case where an unrepresented litigant’s action against five defendants was struck out because the Particulars of Claim did not show any legally recognisable case against any of the defendants. This judgment shows the importance of…
We have seen examples of barristers getting into difficulties because of the misuse of AI. The Bar Standards Handbook gives 14 pages of useful guidance to the Bar. I have attempted to summarise the guidance here and provide some useful…
It is clear from recent developments that the use of AI can be useful in litigation, however it can also lead to major problems. The new SRA Guidance recognises the issues in relation to the need to supervise AI use,…
For many years this blog has taken a particular interest in cases about contributory negligence. This partly because the issue is not dealt with in detail in many places and secondly because of the major practical consequences contributory negligence can…
Last week we looked at the major changes and new elements of the SRA Guidance “Effective Supervision”. The Guidance contains a totally new section on supervision in litigation. Clearly a detailed knowledge of this guidance is essential to all litigators…
Here the Court of Appeal grappled with some interesting issues when it overturned a trial judge’s decision to make no order for costs. The Court of Appeal stated that although the judge had been critical of the conduct of the…
Sometimes it may appear that this series is a bit too “basic”, dealing with things that (surely) everyone involves in litigation knows. However, more often than not, the topics are chosen because recent events have show that there is a…
Fatal accident litigation is fraught with procedural and evidential pitfalls. This webinar highlights the areas where cases most commonly go wrong and provides practical guidance on how to avoid costly mistakes. It provides a comprehensive series of checklists of the…
The SRA have today published updated guidance on Effective Supervision. There are changes and additions to the pre-existing guidance. Some of these are subtle, others are major. We will look at elements of the guidance in detail in later posts. …
This is the second post on witness evidence and the preparation of witness statements today. It is in a very different context to the first. Here we look at a case in the Intellectual Property List where a judge considered…
Here we have a case where the judge uses the word “alarmingly” to describe the way in which a witness prepared their witness statement. It transpired that only part of the statement was the witnesses’ evidence, the rest had been…
This is a case where the principles relating to anonymity orders and private hearings were considered in detail. The claimants applications was largely refused. The only concession being a restriction on disclosure of the claimant’s address. It is important (if…
We have seen recent examples of cases where parties have failed to prove that they have suffered any loss. The attempts by lay witnesses to give “expert” evidence is also a recurrent theme in this blog. Here we go back…
This case emphasises a number of important points about service: (1) There is always a duty on a claimant to serve the claim form in time, no matter what type of proceedings; (2) when a claim form has not been…
Here we have a case where parts of a defence were struck out, in relation to two of the claimants, because of issue estoppel. The defence was trying to re-argue factual issues which had already been determined by a tribunal. …
It is wise to remember that a counterclaiming defendant has the same evidential burden in proving loss as a claimant. Here the judge found that claimant in breach of duty – but found that there was insufficient evidence to prove…
Here we have a case where the court considered, in detail, the appropriate response of the court when a party had failed to comply with previous court orders as to payment of costs. The result was that the defendants in…
We have got to number 400 in this series. It is perhaps fitting we deal with (what may well be) the tail end of a mammoth case. Further it is a case where litigation funders felt that they had not…
We have had three series on advocacy on this site. They have all been from the viewpoint of judges. Looking at guidance given by judges throughout the world. The point being that judges are not your clients, but they are…
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