Issue Based Costs Orders, CPR 36.17(4) And Payments On Account Under CPR 44.2(8)

Key Issues

In this short judgment Mr Justice Cavanagh declined to make an issue-based costs order despite the claimant having been unsuccessful in two parts of his claim on the basis that the evidence which he had obtained and presented in support of the unsuccessful issues had not been wasted.

“on any analysis, Mr Scales has won this case, and I do not consider that it would be just or appropriate to make an issue-based award, either in relation to the period before 1 April 2020 or the period after that date. The expert evidence from Spanish law experts and from care experts would, in any event, have been necessary even if Mr Scales had not advanced the arguments upon which he was unsuccessful.”

He further declined to deprive the claimant of the benefits under CPR 36.17(4) of beating his own Part 36 Offer and awarded a payment on account in the sum of £175,000 taking into account the claimant’s approved costs budget in the sum of £219,702.35, some additional unbudgeted costs and the fact the recoverable costs would be enhanced by the Part 36 consequences.

SCALES V MOTOR INSURERS’ BUREAU [2020] EWHC 1749 (QB)