The court considered issues relating to the appropriateness of the claimants instructing London solicitors in a case in which those solicitors had submitted a bill of costs totalling pounds 220,000 in connection with a claim in which their clients had recovered pounds 90,000. Sir Christopher Staughton said: ‘So surely case management powers will allow a judge in the future to exercise the power of limiting costs, either indirectly or even directly, so that they are proportionate to the amount involved.’
Mance LJ said: ‘The present litigation was conducted under the old rules preceding the Woolf reforms. It is to be hoped that subsequent to the Woolf reforms judges conducting cases will make full use of their powers under the Practice Direction about costs, section 6, which appears in the Civil Procedure White Book 43/PD-006, to obtain estimates of costs and to exercise their powers in respect of cost and case management to keep costs within the bounds of the proportionate in accordance with the overriding objective.’
Judges:
Latham.Mance LJJ, Sir Christopher Staughton
Citations:
[2001] EWCA Civ 736, [2001] 2 Costs LR 247, [2001] CP Rep 92, [2002] PIQR P16, [2001] CPLR 419
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – A B and others v Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust QBD 9-May-2003
The claimants were involved in a group litigation with regard to the removal of organs without consent from deceased children. The defendant sought an order capping the costs which might be claimed.
Held: In GLO cases the desirability of . .
Cited – King v Telegraph Group Ltd CA 18-May-2004
The defendant appealed against interim costs orders made in the claim against it for defamation.
Held: The general power of cost capping measures available to courts were available also in defamation proceedings. The claimant was being . .
Cited – Smith and Others v Ministry of Defence QBD 30-Jun-2011
Claims were made after the deaths of British troops on active service in Iraq. In one case the deaths were from detonations of improvised explosive devices, and on others as a result of friendly fire. It was said that there had been a foreseeable . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Costs, Civil Procedure Rules
Updated: 22 September 2022; Ref: scu.190133