Paul Jones highlights a recent case that provides helpful guidance in an area where the rules are silent ‘The defendant’s submission was that CPR 36.20 gave rise to a deemed order for costs to be assessed by the court and, the claimant, therefore, should have sought a detailed assessment of those costs.’ One of the …
Continue reading "Costs: Assessment of fixed costs: a three-stage process"
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Giles Tagg and Zak Mehmood report on a recent costs judgment ‘Primus argued that a proportional costs order would be appropriate, submitting that Triumph brought forward three claims, one of which was unreasonably brought and led to identifiable, substantial and severable costs.’ The recent case of Triumph Controls UK Ltd v Primus International Holding Co …
Continue reading "Costs: Triumph(ant)?"
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Paul Jones highlights the importance of compliance with the precise wording of Part 36 for an offer to be valid ‘The offer in this case was expressly exclusive of interest and so did not comply with CPR 36.5(4), was not a valid Part 36 offer and, therefore, did not engage the enhanced costs provisions of …
Continue reading "Costs: What’s interesting about Part 36 offers?"
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Paul Jones considers the financial implications of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Aldred ‘The defendant’s submission was that the costs of obtaining an advice for the purposes of an infant approval, whether incurred by the solicitor or counsel, were already included within the fixed costs set out in Table 6B of CPR 45.29C.’ The …
Continue reading "Costs: Counsel’s fees in fixed costs cases"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2019 #176The claimant ‘C’ and second defendant ‘D2’ were two of the children of the deceased, who appeared to have died intestate in 2012. They appointed a probate company ‘D1’ to administer the estate, who took a grant under a power of attorney from D2 in 2013. By 2016, the estate had not been administered and C believed D2 was living in the deceased’s property, so C issued a claim to remove Ds as administrators and for D2 to pay an occupation rent. D1 consented to be removed, but on terms that its fees would be paid. D2 agreed to D1 being removed, but not to her own removal or to payment of occ...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2019 #176On an appeal against HMRC’s determination of liability to inheritance tax the appellant made a number of applications in the First-Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber), including an application to opt out of the complex track costs regime, and for disclosure of documents alleged to be relevant to the HMRC’s assessment that the appellant had not been domiciled in the UK, but in Israel, when shares had been transferred to her by her husband. The appellant contended that she was UK domiciled at the time of the gift and that the spousal exemption applied.
The tribunal wrote to the appellant on...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2019 #176The Claimants brought a claim as executors of the late Louis Patience, who died in April 1997. They produced accounts setting out the proposed distribution of the deceased’s estate. These accounts were opposed by the Defendants (in their capacity as beneficiaries of the estate).
At trial, HHJ Matthews found that the Defendants’ objections were misconceived, though the Claimants did fail on part of their claim. At the subsequent costs hearing, it was held that the Defendants should pay the Claimants’ costs, though as a result of the Claimants failing on one of the issues, the costs...
Paul Jones considers the latest case concerning costs budgeting in multi-track claims ‘Where a costs budget has to be revised, the sums for incurred costs in the revised budget should be the same as the sums in the original budget, even though a substantial amount of further costs may have actually been incurred since the …
Continue reading "Costs: The curious case of when costs are incurred"
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Emma Holland and Luca del Panta look at an international family dispute which has lessons for trustees and PRs defending removal claims ‘At the costs hearing, the widow and daughter argued that the same general rule should apply on the basis that they had been “successful”, particularly as Dr Neupert had effectively abandoned his counterclaim, …
Continue reading "Costs: The cost of obstinacy"
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David Wilkinson considers when an order for costs may be justified in private law children cases and the issue of assessment on a standard or indemnity basis ‘Case law underlines that in children proceedings there should generally be no order for costs, unless a party takes an unreasonable stance or behaves reprehensibly.’ Family lawyers often …
Continue reading "Costs: On dangerous ground"
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