Lamont v Burton: CA 9 May 2007

The defendant had settled the claim for damages for personal injury. His payment in had been rejected, but the claimant won a smaller sum at trial. He now argued that the claimant should not receive the full 100% costs uplift provided.
Held: The defendant’s appeal was dismissed. ‘Section III of Part 45 contains a carefully balanced scheme for the award of success fees in road traffic accident cases. The object of the scheme is to provide certainty and avoid litigation over the amount of success fees to be allowed to successful parties. The only circumstances in which the court may allow a success fee different from that prescribed by rule 45.16 in relation to solicitors’ fees are those described in rule 45.18.’

Judges:

May LJ, Dyson LJ, Smith LJ

Citations:

[2007] EWCA Civ 429, Times 07-Jun-2007, [2007] 1 WLR 2814, [2007] 4 Costs LR 574, [2008] RTR 4, [2007] CP Rep 33, [2007] 3 All ER 173, [2007] PIQR Q8

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Civil Procedure Rules 45.16(a)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

CitedDonald Campbell v Pollak HL 1927
A plaintiff who goes takes his case to trial has no right to costs until an order is made, but if an order is made the court shall order that they follow the event unless in the circumstances of the case some other order should be made. It is only . .
ApprovedButt v Nizami QBD 9-Feb-2006
The court considered the effect of negotiations on costs claims: ‘Changes were made to the Rules of Court. Some of these changes, and in particular the provisions of Sections II to V of CPR45, were introduced following ‘industry wide’ discussions . .

Cited by:

CitedKilby v Gawith CA 19-May-2008
No discretion for refusal of costs
The court was asked whether it has a discretion under Rule 45.11(1) whether or not to award a claimant, who has entered into a conditional fee agreement with his solicitor, the fixed success fee of 12.5%.
Held: The court had no discretion to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Costs, Legal Professions

Updated: 13 October 2022; Ref: scu.251772