The parties disputed the uplift applicable where a road traffic personal injury claim was settled on the day before the full trial, and whether ‘ the learned Recorder erred in holding that the claim concluded at trial because the Claimant’s claim because settlement of the claim was reached on the day fixed for the trial. Accordingly he held that the Claimant was entitled to recover a 100% uplift in counsel’s and solicitor’s fees. If the Recorder erred in so holding, the Claimant sought to uphold the 100% increase in fees on the basis that the claim was concluded at trial because the quantum of the Defendant’s counterclaim was determined at a hearing and the claim and counterclaim together formed the claim which was concluded at trial.’
Held: The phrase ‘at trial’ is defined at CPR 45.15(6)(b), and the recorder was in error in thinking otherwise, and ‘The trigger for entitlement to a 100% uplift in fees is not a settlement on a particular date but a settlement or conclusion after a trial, defined as a hearing, has commenced. It would be straining the use of language to say that a trial has ‘commenced’ after the beginning of the day fixed for trial although the hearing has not yet started.’
Slade J
[2011] EWHC 278 (QB)
Bailii
Civil Procedure Rules 45.15(6)(b)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Deepak Sitapuria v Moorzadi Khan 10-Dec-2007
(Liverpool County Court) In relation to provisions in the CPR dealing with uplift of fees in employer’s liability cases, a trial has not commenced for the purposes of the uplift in solicitor’s fees if a settlement is reached before the hearing of . .
Cited – Dahele v Thomas Bates and Sons Ltd SCCO 17-Apr-2007
The court heard and accepted an argument that there was a lacuna in the CPR provisions relating to the uplift in counsel’s fees in the equivalent rules relating to employer’s liability claims. The rules relating to counsel’s fees unlike those . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Costs
Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.429639
