INTERIM PAYMENT ON ACCOUNT OF COSTS: PERMISSION TO APPEAL REFUSED BY THE COURT OF APPEAL

I wrote on the judgment in  I – interim payment of costs.  in an earlier post.  An article on the Switalskis website today states that the Court of Appeal refused the defendant’s application for permission to appeal.( I know that the case itself has been referred to at various conferences and people were having trouble finding it . The link to the transcript is above.)

THE CASE

The judge made an order for an interim payment on costs in a case where the liability had been agreed and approved. The trial on damages was not likely to take place until 2022.  The defendant objected. However, on appeal, a substantial award of costs was made.

THE JUDGMENT

The judgment is important in that it appreciates the cash flow issues for claimant solicitors who take on substantial litigation where, through no fault of their own,  there can be an extensive amount of time before the work is completed.

“Failure to ensure adequate cash flow during the period of inevitable delay may lead to the perverse and undesirable consequence that solicitors are unwilling to take on case such as this at an early stage.  It is everyone’s interests to determine liability as early as possible.  But if the consequence is that solicitors must then fund the quantum investigation for 10 years or more, they may not be anxious to take the case on early