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…
The need to provide evidence and not simply make bare assertions is as important in applications as at trial. Here we see a case where the claimant obtained summary judgment in the face of a “paucity of evidence” from the…
We are continuing our consideration at the appeal case where the defendant’s appeal against a decision to vary the claimant’s budget. The first reason the appeal was successful was because the first instance judge found that there were no “significant…
This case reiterates the essential point that the court has no freestanding discretion to vary a costs budget. An essential prerequisite of variation is that there must be a “significant development” that warrants a variation. There was no such development…
Here we look at a case where both parties required an extension of time in order to raise very significant arguments in relation to costs. The claimant had been late in filing essential documents for his own costs protection, the…
This judgment highlights the risk that a party who wishes to dispute jurisdiction can accidentally accept it. What, if any, steps should the courts take to protect an appellant in these circumstances. The litigant may wish to appeal to a…
Here the court considered whether an assessment of damages should be stayed pending the claimants’ application for permission to appeal. This raised issues in relation to costs management and proportionality. The judge engaged in an exercise of looking at the…
There is, it appears, no end to the number of cases in which non-compliant witness statements are served. We have another example here. One major issue relates to the failure to give the source of information and belief for the…
I am grateful to barrister Simon Murray for sending me a copy of this decision that deals with some important procedural issues on the Small Claims Track. In particular it highlights the fact that witness statements are not mandatory on…
The issue of “who won” in litigation is usually a relatively easy one. Here we have a judgment in a complex series of test cases where the parties disagreed who had been successful. There was a major difference in views….
It is now twelve years since the judgment in Denton -v- White [2014] EWCA Civ 906. However it is still a judgment that appears regularly in the reports (we will be looking at such a case this week). Over the years…
This judgment illustrates two important things. Firstly that a claimant’s liability to pay costs starts upon issue and remains even if proceedings are never served. Secondly that pre-action conduct can have an impact on the decision that a judge makes…
Setting aside a judgment obtained by fraud is very different to other applications to set aside. It requires a separate action and there is a high burden of proof. However what should happen if one of the parties to the…
There are several issues in the case of general importance, particularly for those seeking to challenge Enforcement Agents. Firstly as to the strict timetable involved; secondly as to what constitutes “controlled goods” and finally as to the appropriate means for…
This is a case that bristles with procedural issues. Firstly as to what happens when a claimant, involved in a partnership with others, goes bankrupt. Secondly whether that litigant could withdraw an admission that he had not status. Thirdly whether…
This week we look at an important decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council from 2017. It is a reminder of the need for a party to put their case to the other side’s witnesses at trial. Here…
I am always wary of being repetitive yet here we have our second case today of a claimant being struck out because of inadequate pleadings. This repetition is simply a reflection of the cases that are going through the courts….
THE CURRENT IMPORTANCE OF PLEADINGS 87: A CLAIM CAN BE STRUCK OUT ON AN ANALYSIS OF THE PLEADED CASE
This judgment confirms a decision to strike out a case on the basis of inadequate pleadings. It emphasises the fact that there is no need to wait for a defence to be filed before such an application is heard. It…
Here we are looking at the consequences of an expert reporting badly. So badly that the parties agreed that a judgment based on the expert’s report must be set aside. The judge held, however, that earlier orders that prevented…
Here we look (not for the first time) at a case where there was no charging clause in a will and a solicitor executor charged for their services. The solicitor attempted to rely on the circumstances in which the will…
We have looked before at these cases relating to the assessment of costs in the pelvic mesh actions. So far as the assessments were concerned nothing much has happened for several years. Here we look at the consequences of this….
Many of the “problem” cases we look at on this blog have similar themes. Leaving the issue of proceedings until the last possible moment and then compounding that by leaving service until the last minute. This case has an additional…
We have looked many times at judgments where the courts have determined that regional centres are the appropriate venue for certain cases. We have another example here. The claimant wanted the matter heard in London. The court directed it be…
There are a number of CLB webinars that are available “on demand”. There is a reduction for CLB members. This is also an opportune time to say au revoir to the little white dog that has been gracing the pages…
This is a case ostensibly about limitation. However the central point for most litigators is that, in reality, it is about a failure to serve a claim form properly. The first claim was issued within the limitation period (following a…
In this case an order for possession was obtained because of arrears of rent. The tenant appellant appealed. The arrears stand at £73,000 and there was a risk of further delay. The judge “grasped the nettle” in making the appellant…
Here we have a case where the Court of Appeal struck out a counterclaim. The defendant had argued one set of facts in Employment Tribunal proceedings and sought to argue a totally different version. The Court was not best pleased…
This case gives a clear message from the Court of Appeal about the critical importance of the “costs neutral” status of the Small Claims Track. The judgment makes it clear that the starting point is that costs are not recoverable…
Here we are (unusually) looking at a decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The case is unusual because the EAT overturned an order as to costs that had been made by the Employment Tribunal. One of the grounds may be…
This is an important decision by the Court of Appeal on how the court should respond to an abuse of process caused by delay. The answer is that this kind of abuse is treated similarly to other types of abuse….
Over the years we have seen many dozens of cases where judges have been critical of the contents of bundles. I cannot recall a case where a judge has determined the contents in advance. We now have an example here. …
The practice of sending out draft judgments in advance is undoubtedly helpful. It does, however, lead to some procedural difficulties in itself. We have seen numerous examples of the draft embargo on a judgment being breached. It is sometimes seen…
In England and Wales we are still considering appropriate guidance for the use of Artificial Intelligence in the courts. The High Court in Ireland has issued a specific Practice Direction on the use of Generative AI in Court Documents. It…
We have seen many issues in relation to schedules over the years. Here the judge considered a schedule that claimed for one person working more than 24 hours in a day. “Some of those hours are, on the face of…
New sections of the Limitation Act 1980 came into force on the 29th June this year. These make a considerable difference where the court is considering issues of limitation in sexual abuse claims. The new provisions are considered in this…
Here we look at a post from July 2019. It gives me a chance to remember the judge in question HH Alan Gore who sadly died in December last year. This is one of his judgments about the Gestmin criteria…
We have looked at a lot of judgments where costs are summarily assessed. This short judgment has two points of interest: (i) the judge’s rejection of the paying party’s point about the indemnity principle; the judge’s eyebrows being raised when…
There is sometimes a suspicion that the Breathing Space Moratoria and Mental Health Crisis Moratoria are capable of being misused as an attempt to avoid payment. That issue is considered this judgment. The applicant applied to set aside a Mental…
We are looking at a case where the trial judge made an order for interim payment on costs following a decision that the claimant should pay the defendants’ costs on the indemnity basis. The judge also considered an issue, raised…
We are looking at another case where the claimant’s conduct of the case has led to costs being awarded on an indemnity basis. The judgment is clear that the claimant deliberately adopted an aggressive case which had no factual merit…
In this case the defendant, a judgment debtor, attempted to set aside an order that a claim form could be served by email on their solicitors. The situation was an unusual one in that the claimant had a judgment against…
Here we are looking “preliminary matters” in a judgment that highlight two procedural issues. One of them is of general relevance, the other more specific but still of significance, particularly for those who are unfamiliar with procedure in the General…
Here we look at some interesting arguments when claimants were attempting to avoid an award of indemnity costs. The judge was not impressed by the submission that the defendant should have applied to strike the action out. He was equally…
Here we have yet another breach of the embargo on the handing down of a court judgment. The breach appears to have occurred because of a misunderstanding as to the important distinction between a court embargo and a journalism embargo. …
Here we have a case where the court was asked to exclude large parts of a party’s witness statements. That application was successful in part. The judge finding that many of the statements, or parts of the statements, were simply…
The LSB report was published yesterday. It deals with matters that remain of practical significance to working litigators. Remember a breach of the Legal Services Act in relation to the conduct of litigation is both a criminal offence and a…
Cost Schedules are signed and served every day. This case shows why they must be checked carefully before signature. Here the judge found that a claim made for counsel’s fees on an N260 had been false. This was one of…
This judgment emphasises the point that a party seeking a stay of a judgment cannot obtain this by “generalised assertions”. There are clear and well established criteria for the court to consider. A party making such an application must make …
This Court of Appeal decision considers issues in relation to contractual service. Does a contractual term in a lease saying that service of documents can take place at the property in question override the CPR provisions as to service? In…
Psychiatric injury claims raise some of the most challenging issues in personal injury litigation. Questions frequently arise as to whether a claimant has suffered a recognised psychiatric illness, how damages should be assessed, the role of expert evidence, and how…
There are two distinct issues of interest to litigators here. Firstly who should (initially at least) bear the costs of hosting on an electronic platform. Secondly whether a major multi-Claimant action should be subject to costs budgeting. “… costs budgeting…
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