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 look again at the award of indemnity costs in the Associated Newspaper case. The reasons for this were manifold. However there were two important factors relating to the statements of case. Firstly the case was pleaded far too widely;…
CLB members have a discount to a series of webinars on damages that start in September. The series is intended to provide practical guidance for practitioners dealing with claims of every size, from straightforward road traffic accidents to catastrophic injury litigation….
It is rare for an order about indemnity costs to make the headlines of the national press and media. We are looking at a case which has had a major amount of publicity, not least because of the celebrity status…
In many cases relating to breach from sanctions the fault may lie with the solicitor rather than the client. This case considers that question directly. The clients’ innocence was an important factor in the court’s discretion. “I take from the…
This decision as to costs gives rise to two interesting issues. Firstly the claimant’s costs of an injunction application were reduced substantially because assertions were put forward on a basis that were “unsustainable” and which should never have been pursued,…
This week we go back to August 2019 with a simple (but I hope effective) post on avoiding negligence claims in civil litigation. Eight of the major problem areas were identified and succinct solutions offered. (There have been hundreds of…
This short series is looking at how you can spot “red flags” when looking at an expert report. There are often aspects of reports that “don’t fare well” when put under scrutiny at trial. “His response was that he usually…
This judgment is critical of the way in which an expert report was prepared. The problems were manifold in relation to the way in which the information was obtained, the way it was presented and the failure to consider primary…
Here is a relatively short judgment on an important point – if the purpose of interest is compensatory what is the position if a claimant would never have earned interest on the money in any event? As we shall see…
Some posts earlier this week concentrated on a case where the judge made no order for costs. This is an unusual outcome, but still one that has to be considered and the client warned about. Here we take a…
In this case the judge decided that the defendant’s conduct of the litigation warranted an award of indemnity costs being made. There is an interesting consideration of the case law relating to when costs will be reduced because of lack…
There are two issues of interest in this case. Firstly the judge’s decision on the appropriate rate for interest on damages generally. Secondly the judge’s observations that there is no need for the court to find misconduct to award enhanced…
We have below a series of posts about the dangers of putting “opinion” evidence into witness statements. It has been a constant theme on this site for, at least, 12 years. There is no sign of this abating. Attempts have…
This case emphasises a long existing principle that a second action cannot be brought if a claimant, now deceased, has settled proceedings in their lifetime. This principle extends to concurrent tortfeasors. There are also important observations outside the realm of…
Here we look at a judgment where the court considered an argument that the claimant had not beaten its own Part 36 offer. The judge held that the defendant’s argument fell at the first post because it failed to take…
We have had a number of cases relating to amending costs budgets recently. This one has a different result. The need to revise the budget arose from the judge’s decision that there should be a separate hearing on damages. This,…
I have had a number of enquiries asking how to update card details when a card has expired. I have outlined the four steps that need to be taken below. THE METHOD Log in to My Account on CLB….
This post obviously follows on from the post earlier today where the judge made no award for costs after a trial. Neither side had “won” and, in any event, the amount spent in pursuit of the claim was disproportional. This…
We are looking at another attempt to vary a costs budget. In this case the attempt was made after the trial and after judgment. Both parties, initially, sought large variations. Only the claimant proceeded with the application in relation to…
This is case that should be considered by every litigator, and litigant. It involves legal expenditure on a major scale, with very little benefit to the parties at the end. The final result is unlikely to please either of the…
When a party obtains an injunction they, usually, have to give an undertaking as to damages. There are now a number of cases where litigants have been found liable to pay damages as a result of that undertaking. We have…
Here we have a case where it was argued that the defendant’s delay in bringing an application to strike out for abuse of process was an abuse of process in itself. The case points to authorities that “acquiescing” in an…
Man of the posts in August 2020 concerned the impact of Covid. This post is the exception. It arose out of a Court of Appeal decision that month that reviewed the principles relating to similar fact evidence in civil cases….
This is a case where the judge found the conduct of a firm of solicitors “utterly extraordinary”. However there were, in fact, a number of errors by both sides. This may (and probably would) have led to a wasted costs…
This is another case where a party attempts to “revisit” preliminary issues/a statement of issues that have been agreed and approved by the court. That application did not get very far. Further the judge observed that, although the parties were…
Back in the dim and distant days of 2018 this site ran its third series on “Advocacy: the Judge’s View”. A new series will start shortly. However before that we are “recapping” on the guidance given in the four previous…
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…
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