Costs Budgeting in English Courts: A Practical Guide, Exercises of Law

Download Costs Budgeting in English Courts: A Practical Guide and more Exercises Law in PDF only on Docsity!

A Practical Guide To Costs

Budgeting

Overview

 Costs budgeting will apply to all multi-track cases

commenced on or after 1st^ April 2013 in:

 A County Court or,

 The Chancery Division or Queens Bench Division of the High Court (except the Admiralty and Commercial Courts) unless the proceedings are the subject of fixed costs or scale costs or the Court orders otherwise.

Overview

 The parties must file and exchange budgets as required

by the Rules or as directed by the Court.

 In the alternative the budget must be filed 7 days

before the first CMC.

 Failure to file a budget will result in the offending

party being treated as having filed a budget

comprising of only the applicable Court Fees.

Exchanging budgets

 Agreeing the budget

 The case/costs management conference

 Understanding the budget

The Effect of Costs Budgeting

 Where a Costs Management Order has been made,

when assessing costs on the standard basis, the Court

will:

 Have regard to the receiving party’s last approved or agreed budget for each phase of the proceedings; and

 Not depart from such approved or agreed budget unless satisfied there is a good reason to do so.

Precedent H – The Costs Budget

 Trial  ADR/settlement discussions  Contingency A  Contingency B  Contingency C

Precedent H – The Costs Budget

 Basic considerations

 Was file reviewed pre-issue?  Has anything changed post-issue?  Have the directions been prepared/agreed?  Will the Fee earner or rate change?  To what degree will counsel be used?  What (if any) additional expert evidence is required?

Precedent H – The Costs Budget

 Contingencies:

 Is the medical prognosis guarded – will evidence be required from medical experts in other disciplines

 Could expert evidence be required to support other aspects of the case i.e. employment, pensions, or accountancy experts?

 What about surveillance evidence?

Precedent H – The Costs Budget

 Assumptions – play a vital role, for example:

 Number of CMC’s  Anticipated work for each phase  Future expert evidence  Anticipated length of trial

Possibility of using a separate or continuation sheet?