The Court of Appeal has unanimously held that the court has jurisdiction to order an interim payment on account of costs pursuant to CPR 44.2 where a Part 36 offer has been accepted within the relevant offer period, overturning the High Court’s decision that there was no such jurisdiction: Global Assets Advisory Services Ltd v … Read more

The Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision to award non-party costs against an insurer under section 51 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, which gives the court full power to determine by whom and to what extent costs are to be paid: Travelers Insurance Company Ltd v XYZ [2019] UKSC 48. The … Read more

A proposed redrafted version of the regulations governing DBAs was presented yesterday at a conference at The Old Hall, Lincoln’s Inn. The 2019 draft regulations have been prepared by Professor Rachael Mulheron and Nicholas Bacon QC, who were invited by the Ministry of Justice to conduct an independent review of the 2013 DBA Regulations in … Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court has distinguished between correspondence which is expressly stated to be “without prejudice” and that which is only impliedly so, finding that the latter category (but not the former) can be taken into account on questions of costs: Sternberg Reed Solicitors v Harrison [2019] EWHC 2065 (Ch). There is … Read more

The High Court has granted an order for security for costs against a Russian claimant, on the basis that there was a real risk that any costs order against it would have to be enforced in Russia, where the court said there was a real risk of substantial obstacles to enforcement – even though there … Read more

The High Court has found that a commercial funder was liable for all of the defendants’ costs incurred in successfully defending a funded claim, from the date on which the funding agreement was entered into. The court declined to apply the so-called Arkin cap to limit the funder’s liability for adverse costs to the amount … Read more

In a recent judgment, the Court of Appeal upheld a decision to strike out a claim as an abuse of the court’s process, where the claim repeated an earlier claim which had been struck out as a result of the claimant’s failure to provide security for costs pursuant to an unless order: Harbour Castle Limited … Read more

The High Court has applied Court of Appeal authority to rule that Protective Costs Orders (PCOs) are not available to claimants in private law litigation, in what appears to be the first decision relating to PCOs in the specific context of a claim under Part 7 of the Civil Procedure Rules: Jolyon Maugham QC v … Read more