Para 7.12 RTA Protocol | No Interim Payment Without A Stay

03/08/2021/0 Comments/in Case Law /by Toby Moreton

“If a claimant wishes to benefit from the provisions of paragraph 7.13 to 7.22 (and by doing so be paid an interim payment), he or she must obtain a stay under paragraph 7.12. This, to my mind, is the natural reading of the Protocol. It is also entirely understandable why the drafters of the Protocol would wish to restrict a claimant’s ability to seek interim payments under paragraphs 7.13 and 7.18 to certain defined circumstances (namely, those that are set out in paragraph 7.12)…. it must follow that the Claimant wrongly exited the Portal.”

Fixed Costs Under CPR 45 | Which Section Applies If The Claimant Dies?

08/07/2021/0 Comments/in Case Law /by Toby Moreton

Where a person gives notification of a claim under the Protocol but thereafter dies before its conclusion and the notified claim then settles on behalf his Estate pre-issue, are the costs and disbursements payable by the defendant to be calculated by reference to Section IIIA (or III) of CPR 45? Or are they to be calculated by reference to the generally more favourable Section II of CPR 45?

Court of Appeal: Fixed Costs Do Not Apply To Appeals But QOCS Does

02/02/2020/0 Comments/in Case Law /by Toby Moreton

The Court of Appeal determined the following costs issues following a successful second appeal:

(1) Do the rules governing fixed costs in CPR r.45.17 to 19 apply to the costs of the appeal?

(2) If not, does CPR r.52.19 apply?
(3) If CPR r.52.19 does apply, what order for costs should we make?

(4) Does the Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting regime in CPR Part 44 apply to the costs of the appeal so as to limit the extent to which any order may be enforced against the respondent?

The EL/PL Protocol And The Meaning Of ‘Vulnerable Adult’ In Para 4.3(8)

09/12/2019/0 Comments/in Case Law /by Toby Moreton

An employers liability claim which settled outside the EL/PL Protocol for £15,000 was not restricted to the fixed costs that would have been allowed had the EL/PL Protocol been applied.

Part 36 Acceptance And Conventional (Assessed) vs Fixed Recoverable Costs

19/11/2019/0 Comments/in Case Law /by Toby Moreton

Overturning a first appeal decision of His Honour Judge Wulwik in the High Court, Lord Justice Newey determined that acceptance of a Part 36 Offer which referred to CPR 36.13 and offered to pay “costs to be subject to detailed assessment if not agreed” did not amount to contracting out of fixed costs, which continued to apply.

Counsel’s fee recoverable as a disbursement under the provisions of Section IIIA in CPR 45

13/10/2019/0 Comments/in Case Law /by Toby Moreton

On this appeal from Costs Officer Martin in the Senior Courts Costs Office, the Defendant contended that the Claimant had no entitlement to payment of Counsel’s fee for an advice.

HAMMOND V SIG PLC & SUBSIDIARY COMPANIE [2019] EWHC B7 (COSTS)

Fixed costs under Section III of CPR 45: is there any escape?

13/06/2019/0 Comments/in Case Law /by Toby Moreton

This was the latest in a series of unsuccessful attempts to escape fixed costs as governed by Section IIIA of CPR 45 by reason of exceptional circumstances under CPR 45.29J. The claimant’s solicitors argued that it had been the claimant’s intention from the outset to pursue the claim outside the Portal. They had initially sent the defendant a letter of claim and only later added the claim to the Portal at the defendant’s insistence in order to progress matters, saying that “the Defendant refused to consider the matter unless a Portal submission was made”.

Ferri v Gill [2019] EWHC 952 (QB) (17 April 2019)

Master Wrong To Set “low bar” To Escaping Fixed Costs

18/04/2019/0 Comments/in Case Law /by Toby Moreton

The setting of the policy reasons reiterated in the Fixed Costs regimes cases cited earlier in this judgment, while allowing for “exceptional circumstances” to depart from that regime, require a more strict, not a “low bar”, approach.