The claimant had pursued the case under a collective conditional fee agreement, organised by her trade union. The defendant challenged an order for payment of the costs, arguing that under the indemnity principle, the claimant would be under no duty to pay costs, and that therefore there he was denied her claim by the indemnity principle.
Held: The claimant was under a duty to pay his legal costs, and therefore could recover his costs even against the indemnity principle. The agreement with the lawyers was a collective conditional fee agreement and therefore not covered by the main Conditional Fee Agreements Regulations.
Lord Phillips MR referred to cases where litigants are funded by third parties such as trade unions: ‘When defeated by such a litigant, unsuccessful parties have, on occasion, invoked the indemnity principle in an attempt to avoid paying costs. The argument advanced has been that the successful litigant is not liable for his costs and, therefore, has no right to recover them. The courts have had no truck with such arguments. They have defeated them by finding that, in the circumstances under consideration, the litigant comes under an independent obligation, albeit one that is unlikely to be enforced, to pay the fees of the solicitor who is acting for him’
Judges:
Lord Justice Mummery, Lord Justice Tuckey, Lord Phillips Of Worth Matravers MR
Citations:
[2003] EWCA Civ 1484, Times 31-Oct-2003, [2004] 1 Costs LR 91, [2004] 1 All ER 886, [2004] 1 WLR 378
Links:
Statutes:
Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 58, Collective Conditional Fee Agreements Regulations 2000 (2000 No 2988), Conditional Fee Agreements Regulations 2000 (2000 No 692)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Radford and Another v Frade and Others QBD 8-Jul-2016
The court was asked as to the terms on which solicitors and Counsel were retained to act for the defendants. The appeals did not raise any issues concerning costs practice, and were by way of review of the Costs Judge’s rulings, and not by way of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Personal Injury, Costs
Updated: 08 June 2022; Ref: scu.187281