In the case of Jamadar -v- Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Trust CA 21/07/2016, the Claimant failed to file a costs budget and their budget was limited to court fees.
The Defendant had admitted liability, following which the Judge revoked the notice of allocation. The matter was listed for a CMC, therefore the Defendant complied with the rules and filed a budget, however the Claimant did not. The Judge ordered that the Claimant’s budget be reduced to court fees, the Claimant applied for relief from sanctions and were unsuccessful. The Claimant appealed to the Circuit Judge, which also failed and the Court of Appeal upheld that decision.
The revoking of the N149C did not mean that the case was not allocated to the multi-track.
The rules are clear, a budget must be filed before the first CMC for all multi-track claims that are less than £10m. The rules state that a budget must be filed for cases that are likely to be allocated to the multi-track. This was a claim for £3m, its hard to see how this claim could have been allocated to any other track – the matter had been listed for a CMC, it was suitable for the multi-track, therefore the criteria in the CPR which triggers the preparation of a budget had been met.
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