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…
I am grateful to Craig Leigh, for sending me a copy of this judgment in relation to an appeal about allocation in a housing disrepair case. It deals with important principles relating to the allocation of housing disrepair cases. The…
Early next year there will be a new division of the High Court – the Business and Property Division. This was announced yesterday, with all Business and Property Courts to become part of the new Business and Property Division. We…
This is a case where a decision as to costs and interests was overturned on appeal. The Circuit Judge found that the claimant landlord had no entitlement to claim costs under the terms of the lease. Further the claim for…
Much of the discussion in relation to clinical negligence cases is based on expert evidence and the standard of care (and rightly so). However it is important that practitioners do not overlook the vital role played by witness evidence. Those…
For many years the courts have endeavoured to provide guidance for the appropriate approach to damages when a “carer” is killed. The principles relating to lost of an “income earner” are generally well established. Over the past few decades there…
Checklists are always a feature of discussions I have with publishers and legal professionals. I have prepared have created a whole series of checklists for lawyers (9 in total) and a series for experts (6), plus a “Judicial Red Flags”…
This case, where judgment was given today, is essential reading for anyone litigating using CE-File. It is also essential to anyone involved in group litigation. This is a case where 5,000 claimants were refused relief from sanctions. That initial difficulty…
This case has two important practical points. Firstly (contrary to the case put forward by the claimant) a failure to respond to a Notice to Admit facts does not give rise to an “implied admission” by the recipient of the…
We are looking at an (unsuccessful) application for relief from sanctions in a family case. A husband sought permission to appeal some 10 1/2 months out of time. What is particularly interesting here are the judge accepted that some delay…
I am grateful to Jamie Carpenter KC for drawing my attention to this judgment given this afternoon. It relates to an interesting dispute between law firms. The claimant had entered into a CFA with the defendant. The defendant argued that…
Here we look at how a simple mistake in the naming of a file led to a potentially disastrous problem when it led to an appeal being out of time. The wrong documents were sent to the court when an…
This blog has covered issues relating to time estimates many times. I cannot recall, however, a case where there has been an appeal over a judicial determination of a time estimate for a trial. We have such a case here. …
Some areas of litigation rely heavily on expert evidence. Clinical negligence is often one of those areas. It is always interesting to read judicial views when a matter reaches trial. Here was have a judgment where the judge considered aspects…
Here we look at a recent decision that has major practical implications for anyone making an application, or anyone disgruntled with a court decision. The applicant asked, specifically, for an application to be considered on paper. The matter was considered…
Fatal accident claims are among the most complex and high-stakes cases a lawyer can handle. They are not simply personal injury claims in which the injured person has died. Fatal accident litigation is governed by a distinct legal framework, involves…
There is no shortage of posts on this blog where judges have been critical of expert witnesses (and sometimes those who instruct them). This webinar examines how courts assess and evaluate expert evidence in personal injury litigation, with a particular…
Here we continue the theme of today in looking at applications to amend. In this case the application was unsuccessful because it sought to raise issues that may be subject to a limitation defence. The judge rejected the argument that…
The theme for today may well be unsuccessful applications to amend pleadings. Here we have what may be regarded as an “extreme” case. The claimant issued proceedings relying on medical evidence that actually contradicted the pleaded case. This was pointed…
If we have a theme for today it relates to applications to amend pleadings. This is, needless to say, a regular topic on this site. The issues and problems that litigants faced 11 years ago still occur in cases we…
Here we have a case where both parties made Part 36 offers. The court held that the offers were ineffective. One because the offeror had not beaten their offer on a true “like-for-like” comparison. The other offer was held not…
Some new provisions relating to the Damages Claim Portal came into effect yesterday, introduced in Practice Direction 51ZB (the Damages Claims Pilot) . Essentially these allow “other remedy claims” to be issued alongside damages claims. It also extends the portal…
The Court of Appeal considered some interesting issues in this case. Firstly in relation to the direct applicability of EC directives; secondly in relation to whether a particular body was an emanation of the state. It is not clear how…
We are continuing our review of personal injury cases with another slipping case where the claim failed (don’t worry the imbalance will be addressed in due course). However the reason in this case was simply because the matter that caused…
Today we will, primarily, be looking at personal injury and clinical negligence issues. Here we look at a case where the claim failed even though the judge found there was a breach of duty. The difficulty for the claimant was…
Here we look at a case where the Master struck out the claimants’ pleaded case alleging unlawful means conspiracy, breach of contract and a claim in negligence. The Master held that that the pleadings were non-compliant and did not plead…
Here we have another case of a failure to serve a claim form properly. This time a local authority failed to serve interested parties to an appeal because, rather than sending the claim forms to them personally, they were sent…
Earlier posts have written on the issue of how little guidance there is for those attending courts (civil courts in particular) to give evidence. An earlier post provided useful links. Here we look at the guidance given in one of…
There must be many anxious litigators who have read the words of CPR 6.15 and happily assumed that their case is saved. On the face of it this rule gives the court a wide power to authorise service by another…
This will not be the only case about (mis) service of the claim form this week, however it may be the largest. We have the “traditional” pattern of a claimant leaving service until the very last day and then serving…
There are some interesting observations in the short judgment on costs in this case. There was too much correspondence, “witness statements” were in reality skeleton arguments, with the contents then repeated in skeleton arguments. Furthermore a “good” Grade C is…
In Serra -v- Harvey [2024], wasted costs were ordered on an indemnity basis against the claimant’s solicitors because the lateness and condition of the trial bundles. The bundles were described as “haphazard”. This is just one of numerous posts on…
I wrote about this case in August 2025 “Here we have a case that could well bring tears to the eyes of any litigator who works on a conditional fee basis. For the second time, on appeal, the claimant solicitor’s…
One day the incorrect use of AI to cite “hallucinated” authorities is going to ruin someone’s career. It may have done so already, there are a number of SRA investigations pending. The example we look at here is highly educational…
It is important to remember the major difference in the court’s approach to a an application for an extension that is made ahead of the date of compliance compared to one that is made afterwards. The governing principles are very different….
We looked earlier at the Court of Appeal decision yesterday in relation to relief from sanctions. Here we look at the judgment in relation to the costs of the hearing below and of the appeal itself. As we shall see…
Allegations of undersettlement of personal injury actions are not uncommon. There is an entire industry specialising in looking at solicitor’s files. This webinar aims to help practitioners avoid such assertions and be able to provide clear and robust replies if…
I am grateful to Barrister Simon Brindle for sending me a copy of the judgment of this Court of Appeal judgment given yesterday. It relates primarily to the major distinction between an application made “ahead” of time and one made…
Here we have a case of a litigant (the HMRC no less) making a deliberate decision to ignore Tribunal directions. It then attempted to justify that decision by stating “That was a deliberate and proportionate case management decision, taken in…
Here we consider an issue that has some relevance to the profession as a whole. Should the SRA be liable to pay the costs of an appeal from the SDT? In this case the SRA was the instigator of the…
Recent cases have considered the question of what a defendant can argue as to damages when a claimant has obtained summary judgment. Here we look at a case that considers the position when the defendant’s defence has been struck out. …
Here we have a case where the “would be” appellant failed to obtain permission to appeal out of time. They failed to notice that the time limits for appealing this specific type of decision had been changed two months prior…
There is a revised version of the Court of Appeal judgment in Mazur. Some paragraphs were amended slightly (but significantly). These amendments do not appeal to have made their way to the version of the judgment that is publicly available….
There have been quite a few cases about pleading recently. This case is interesting because it makes the point that after a default judgment is entered a claimant is only entitled to have damages assessed on the basis of their…
Here we look at an argument that a claimant was not entitled to interest because it was not pleaded. The judge rejected the argument on two grounds. Firstly that CPR 16 does not apply to Part 8 claims; secondly that…
Here we have an unusual case in that the defendant, rather than seeking to amend its defence, sought permission to amend the list of issues to enable it to argue a new point which (the judge found) had not been…
Four webinars are now available “on demand” from Civil Litigation Brief: PD57AC; Mazur in the Court of Appeal; Informing the Client about the Costs of Litigation; Part 36 recent developments. THE COSTS (The costs are £75.00 plus VAT if you…
Here we have another case where the court considered an argument that it was “unjust” for an unsuccessful defendant to face the normal Part 36 consequences when they had failed to beat a claimant’s Part 36 offer. This judgment shows…
Here we have a case where the judge considers in considerable detail the principles relating to pleading, the striking out of pleadings, and the possibility of being allowed to amend. None of these favoured the claimant. “It is not sufficient…
Here we have an example of a litigation strategy backfiring. The applicant made a (late) application for summary judgment to be heard on the first day of the trial. The respondents filed evidence in response to the application. Much of…
This webinar examines claims of under-settlement brought against claimant solicitors, focusing on how courts determine whether professional negligence has occurred in the handling, settlement, or litigation of a case. It explores key case law where negligence was both established and…
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