#10361 - Costs Management - BPC Civil Litigation

COSTS MANAGEMENT

• procedure

1. parties exchange litigation budgets

2. court states extent to which budgets approved

3. court manages case within budgets (as far as possible)

4. as case progresses, parties may file amended budgets subject to court approval

5. at end of litigation, winning party's recoverable costs assessed in accordance with costs budget

• purpose = manage costs to further OO (r3.12(2))

• application of costs management (r3.12(1))

  • all multi track cases (except specialist proceedings) unless fixed or scale costs apply / court otherwise orders

  • all other proceedings where court orders

• format of costs budget

  • info on following stages:

    • pre-action costs

    • issue and SoCs

    • case management conference

    • disclosure

    • witness statement

    • expert reports

    • pre-trial review

    • trial prep

    • trial

    • ADR / settlement discussions

    • contingencies e.g. unlikely but possible interim applications

  • must be dated and verified by statement for truth signed by senior legl rep of party (PD 22 para 2.2A)

• filing and exchanging budgets

  • who? (r3.13)

    • all parties (except litigants in person) must file and exchange (unless court orders otherwise)

    • litigant in person must still be provided with other party's budget (PD 3E para 2.8)

  • when? (r3.13)

    • by date specified in notice served under r26.3; or

    • if none specified 7 days before first case management conference

  • failure to file

    • party treated as having filed budget comprising only applicable court fees (r3.14)

    • party in default can apply for relief from sanctions by making part 23 app + evidence (r3.9)

• costs management orders (r3.15)

  • presumption in favour of making

  • court may make at any time

  • court records

    • extent budgets agreed between parties

    • court's approval after revising budgets / parts of budgets NOT agreed

  • only applies to future costs yet to be incurred BUT pre-budget costs may be taken into account when considering reasonableness and proportionality of subsequent costs (PD 3E para 2.4)

  • court applies proportionality test in r44.3(5) to costs budget

  • if approved, party must re-file budget, and annex to order approving it (PD 3E para 2.7)

  • if costs management order made:

    • court controls parties budgets re: recoverable costs (r3.15(3))

    • court may set timetable for future budget reviews (PD 3E para 2.5)

• costs management conference (r3.16)

  • = any hearing convened solely for costs management

  • if practicable, conduct by telephone / in writing

• reviews of costs budgets

  • each party must revise if significant developments warrant (PD 2E para 2.6)

  • must submit revised version to other parties for agreement

  • if no agreement, must submit to court + note of changes, reasons, objections of other party

  • court may approve, vary disapprove may need costs management conference to do so

• relevance of costs / budgets to case management

  • regardless of whether costs management order made, when making case management decisions the court will have regard to parties' budgets and take into accounts costs of procedural steps (r3.17(1))

• costs of costs management!

  • recoverable costs of doing completing...