The claimant had succeeded in his claim for personal injuries, and had issued costs only proceedings. The defendant challenged the ‘success fee’ claimed as part of the conditional fee arrangement.
Held: The costs recoverable were to be reasonable and proportionate. The success fee was not to be judged with hindsight, but must allow for where the risk was minimal. The Law Society Model CFA covered both the claim and proper enforcement steps, including the claim for costs if necessary. Could a success fee be recovered in respect of the costs of pursuing the costs only proceedings? It could, and given the state of uncertainty at the time when the agreement was made, a 20% uplift was appropriate. However the court also considered the general success uplift in simple cases to be too high, and the court should ordinarily order an uplift of 5% only.
Judges:
Brooke, Peter Gibson, Tuckey LJJ
Citations:
[2002] EWCA Civ 1258, [2003] 1 WLR 28, [2002] 3 Costs LR 503, [2003] PIQR P5, [2003] RTR 147, [2003] RTR 9, [2003] 1 All ER 775
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Callery v Gray (No 2) CA 31-Jul-2001
A plaintiff could recover the costs of insuring himself against the risk of having to pay the other sides costs, and finding his own costs irrecoverable (after the event or ATE insurance). The earlier case had decided that such premiums may be . .
Cited by:
Cited – Coventry and Others v Lawrence and Another SC 22-Jul-2015
The appellants challenged the compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights of the system for recovery of costs in civil litigation in England and Wales following the passing of the Access to Justice Act 1999. The parties had been . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Costs, Personal Injury
Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.175059