Tag: CPR 3

The Precedent T; a new Costs Management precedent, watch this space!

Sue FoxLeave a comment

The CPRC have released minutes of their latest meeting.  The committee has provided further information regarding the proposals and options relating to revisions to CPR r3.15 and PD 3E, please follow this link to see our previous update.

CPR r3.15 will be re-drafted stating that revisions to budgets are made promptly rather than the initial suggestion that revisions are made without delay. There will be further amendments to practice direction 3E with the introduction of a precedent T and accompanying rules in relation to the completion of the same. The precedent T will provide much needed structure regarding the process of revising budgets and we are expecting that it will outline how to revise budgets. The intention is that these updates will feature in the October 2020 update to the rules.

Please do not hesitate to give me a call or email if you have any queries regarding revising your budget or any other cost management requirements.  More detail regarding the importance of revising the budget can be found in our previous blog here. Remember that the rules provide for incurring 2% of your budget in respect to all cost management matters which includes monitoring and revising budgets.

Sue Fox is a Senior Associate and the Head of the Costs Management team in the Costs and Litigation Funding Department at Clarion Solicitors. You can contact her at sue.fox@clarionsolicitors.com and 0113 336 3389, or the Clarion Costs Team on 0113 246 0622.

Court of Appeal finds approved costs budget irrelevant when indemnity basis awarded

Anna Lockyer1 Comment

The Court of Appeal decision in Lejonvarn v Burgess & Anor [2020] EWCA Civ 114 has determined that an approved costs budget is irrelevant where indemnity costs are ordered.

The appellant’s case was that whilst there was an approved costs budget of £415,000, her actual costs were £724,265.63. To allow this would effectively reward her for failing to keep within the budget. Interestingly the budget was only partially costs managed and therefore was subject to change in certain phases in any event.

Lord Justice Coulson acknowledged “The figure produced by an approved cost budget mechanism (CPR r.3.12-r.3.18) is a different thing to the final assessment of costs following the trial. The former is prospective; the latter is retrospective. True it is that, in many cases, the approved costs budget will be the appropriate starting point for the final costs assessment. But that does not detract from the underlying proposition that they are different figures produced by different considerations with different purposes” and in any event “If there is an order for indemnity costs, then prima facie any approved budget becomes irrelevant”.

Although Lord Justice Coulson was not persuaded that there was an approved budget in this particular case he made it clear that costs assessed on an indemnity basis are not constrained by an approved costs budget. He even went so far as to say that his obiter comments in the cases of Elvanite and Bank of Ireland v Watts which suggested the contrary, should be disregarded.

Anna Lockyer is an Associate in the Costs and Litigation Funding Department at Clarion Solicitors. You can contact her at anna.lockyer@clarionsolicitors.com and 0113 288 5619, or the Clarion Costs Team on 0113 246 0622