Master orders Labour Party to present common and non-common elements in single costs budget

On the basis it would be “expensive and speculative” to produce separate costs budgets for the defended claim and the Part 20 claim, Master Dagnall decided only one budget would be required at the CCMC stage.

By way of background, Taylor and others v Evans (as representative of the Labour Party) and others (Named Third Parties) [2023] EWHC 2490 (KB) is a data protection claim relating to an internal report that was compiled when the Labour Party was being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission regarding allegations of anti-Semitism.

The draft report was leaked soon after the last general election at a time when Jeremy Corbyn was being replaced by Sir Keir Starmer. The Defendant’s main defence and premise on which their Part 20 claim is brought, is that third parties, who at the material time were employees and officers of the Defendant but aligned with Mr Corbyn, leaked the internal report and were engaged in a conspiracy to undermine Sir Keir Starmer.

In relation to budgeting Master Dagnall took the view that “if the main claim and the Part 20 claim are to be tried together as I have directed is to be the case, then, unless there is some particularly good reason, they are simply producing figures for each phase.”

Master Dagnall then went on to say “at this point the underlying purpose of the budgeting process is to tell parties, what is reasonable and proportionate for each party to spend; and this is done by the court and the other parties simply being given proposed figures for each phase, and the figures for each phase then being settled by agreement or court approval.”

“It seems to me it would be perfectly possible for a judge at trial to say that a particular costs order should be made which reflects the fact that some issues were, it turns out, not the concerns of the claimants and they have sought to distance themselves from those issues. It seems to me those are decisions which can only be taken at trial itself and I am not convinced myself at this point that it is clear that such is going to be the situation, and do not think that I should be directing the budgeting process on the basis that such is likely to occur.”

“I also bear in mind that it is always open to the judge to consider that there is good reason to depart from the costs budgets, and the judge can deal with such a situation at trial in a number of different ways, by making a variety of different costs orders or simply directing that the cost budgets will, in one way or another, be given no or only limited weight. But it seems to me that these are all matters pre-eminently for the trial judge. Costs budgeting may effectively limit the spending decisions taken by parties as they go along, but the actual consequences as to what should happen to costs should be matter for the trial judge.”

“In any event, I do not regard it as clear enough that there are uncommon costs to make a specific direction about any particular category of costs.”

“The parties are under their ordinary duties when preparing costs budgets to consider whether or not the ordinary form of them is inappropriate. If they do so consider, and consider that there are costs which simply relate only to one of the other sides and not another, then the court would normally expect them to refer to that and, in some way or other, reflect it in their material.”

“For me to lay down any rule at this point seems to me as inappropriate, so I am not going to do so.”

“In my judgment, the parties should just simply provide costs budgets on the ordinary basis.”

Anna Lockyer is a Senior Associate in the Costs and Litigation Funding Department at Clarion Solicitors. You can contact the team at civilandcommercialcosts@clarionsolicitors.com