References: Unreported, 10 December 2007
Coram: HH Judge Stewart QC
(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 the case has started. As for the rule applicable to counsel, if a case settles on the day of a hearing but before it starts, the claim concludes within a period the start of which is the specified number of days before the date fixed for the commencement of the hearing and not ‘at trial’.
HH Judge Stewart QC disagreed with the judgment of Master Haworth in Dahele v Thomas Bates & Son Ltd [2007] EWCA 90072 (costs) in which he decided that a case ‘concludes at trial’ for the purpose of the rule relating to uplift in counsel’s fees if it settles on the day fixed for trial. He also disagreed with adopting this construction to interpret ‘at trial’ in the rule relating to solicitors as meaning on the day fixed for the hearing.
This case is cited by:
- Cited – Amin and Another -v- Mullings and Another QBD (Bailii, [2011] EWHC 278 (QB))
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 . .
