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…
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…
Here we have a case where it appears that 1,000 claimants involved in Group Litigation will seek to discontinue. This fact becoming clear less than a month after the Group Litigation Order was made. The judge declined to strike out…
This is far from being an isolated complaint from the judiciary about inadequate time estimates. The warning given here is clear. Inadequate time estimates “must stop”. In future cases are likely to be adjourned if it is clear that the…
The issue of medical evidence to support a claim that a witness cannot attend trial, or requires some dispensation, have been some recurrent issues in litigation over the years. Many problems come from the medical evidence in support failing to…
One of the key factors in this Court of Appeal judgment was the meaning of the word “trial”. Curiously this is not defined in the rules and has only been considered in two previous cases. The issue was important…
There has been much publicity recently about liability for costs when “multi-claimant” actions fail, are struck out or discontinued. We have a case that considers those issues here, albeit on a relatively small scale. Each claimant was liable to pay…
There have been a number of cases where the courts have considered letters, or less formal “reports”, provided by doctors to support elements of a litigant’s case, usually in relation to an application for adjournment or procedural issue. There was…
Here we look at a regular judicial complaint: too many documents with many of them being irrelevant. This post was from July 2016. There have been numerous similar complaints since as the “Related Posts” (from both 2016 and 2026) below…
For the second time today I am writing about a case where the trial judge was concerned that an expert witness for the claimant did not fully understand the “Bolam” test. The concern also extends to the way in which…
Regular readers will know that this blog features a lot of cases about service of the claim form. It is one of the most common problem areas in litigation. It is surprising that there has not been a recent text…
A whole raft of changes come into force on the 1st October. The most noticeable will be that the Chancery Division disappears. There is also an end to the “presumption” that costs management takes place by telephone. Also note the…
This case looks at a common issue in relation to experts, particularly in clinical negligence cases. Specialists can report on what they would have done (given their own level of expertise) rather than what the “reasonable” practitioner would have done. …
Here we have a detailed consideration of some of the key points in relation to fatal accident damages. In particular how claims for loss of a carer should be assessed. These are central issues in many cases and there is…
Artificial Intelligence continues to give rise to novel legal issues. In this case the courts had to consider the impact of clear evidence that the complainant in a criminal case had received detailed “coaching” by the use of A.I. …
This is almost a “classic” example of a failure to prove things. The claimant established that the defendant was in breach of contract and that certain exclusion clauses did not apply. However it ended up with damages of £1.00. The…
We are looking at a case where an unsuccessful claimant attempted to argue that the trial judge had got the facts wrong, in particular there was a failure to take account of documentary evidence. This judgment highlights the difficulties of…
Here the Court of Appeal looks at one of the most remarkable issues of “litigation conduct” that has occurred in recent years. The claimants hired a “black ops” operative to befriend and obtain privileged and confidential information from the defendants’…
Every personal injury claim includes a claim for damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity. Yet it is often the least analysed part of the claim. Awards are frequently based on broad assumptions, whilst opportunities to maximise a proper…
A solicitor is, generally, not under a duty to satisfy themselves that their client is telling the truth. However what happens when there are “red flags” which indicate the client is using the solicitor’s services in furtherance of a fraud? …
This is an interesting judgment on whether the court should impose a costs cap in a case that was already subject to costs budgeting. The defendant had made an application to vary the budget which was pending. The judge had…
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