Today, I presented at our annual commercial litigation webinar on the topic of Statements of Costs for Summary Assessment, where I covered the following:
- What is a summary assessment?;
- A review of the rules and practice direction;
- Recent case law and practical points; and
- What’s new?
Statements of Costs for Summary Assessment have been a somewhat ‘dry’ area of costs law for a long period of time, but over the last few years there has been a lot of activity and an increase in reported cases concerning breaches of CPR 44 CPD 9.5. The Court has a fairly wide discretion when faced with such breaches by virtue of CPR 44 CPD 9.6 which states:
‘The failure by a party, without reasonable excuse, to comply with paragraph 9.5 will be taken into account by the court in deciding what order to make about the costs of the claim, hearing or application, and about the costs of any further hearing or detailed assessment that may be necessary as a result of that failure.’
The court should also apply the case of MacDonald v Taree Holdings [2001] 1 Costs L.R. 147 when considering imposing its power under CPR 44 CPD 9.6. The test set out in this case is:
“What, if any, prejudice has that failure to comply caused to the other party? If no prejudice, then the court should go on and assess the costs in the normal way. If satisfied it has caused prejudice, the next question is: how should that prejudice be best dealt with.”
The case law that I covered in the presentation was:
1. Kuznetsov v London Borough of Camden [2019] EWHC 3910 (Admin)
2. Mahandru v Nielson [2021] EWHC 2297 (QB)
3. Changing Climates Ltd v Warmaway Limited [2021] EWHC 3117 (TCC)
4. Vine v Belfield [2021] EWHC 3068 (QB)
The above cases are all examples of where the Courts were faced with breaches of CPR 44 CPD 9.5 and they all reached different outcomes.
If you have any questions on Statements of Costs for Summary Assessment or require assistance with the preparation of a Statement of Costs or help with challenging a Statement of Costs ahead of a hearing, then please do contact me at andrew.mcaulay@clarionsolicitors.com or on 07764501252. We also offer in person or remote/video training on this area of costs law.
