‘The proportionality test does not prevent the recovery of costs that are higher than the sums at issue in litigation, the Senior Costs Judge has said in allowing such a recovery by a host of celebrities awarded damages in the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) phone hacking litigation.’
Litigation Futures, 14th June 2018
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘The High Court has criticised a law firm’s “very heavy reliance on partner time”, and the “astonishing” amount of time junior counsel was planning to spend in preparing for trial, as it slashed by more than half many of their budgeted costs for representing two claimants in the phone hacking litigation against Mirror Group Newspapers.’
Litigation Futures, 30th May 2018
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘It is nearly six years since Julian Assange disguised himself as a motorcycle courier and entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London to seek political asylum. His subsequent legal battle, so vast and protracted a CPS lawyer once deemed it “like an industry in itself”, comes to a pivotal moment on Tuesday, when a judge will rule on whether the warrant for his arrest has become disproportionate.’
The Guardian, 13th February 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A circuit judge has more than doubled the amount that Queen guitarist Brian May can recover after he settled a private nuisance dispute, ruling that the costs judge at first instance had misapplied the new proportionality test.’
Litigation Futures, 8th January 2018
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘This week marks the 41st anniversary of the judgment in Handyside v UK. This was a milestone judgment as it introduced a crucial concept for decision-making in human rights cases, the margin of appreciation.’
Rights Info, 7th December 2017
Source: rightsinfo.org
‘The question of whether the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) can be used to deal with Bitcoins¹ and electronic currencies has been the subject of some speculation by specialist practitioners recently. In my view it can be utilised, but it is not ideal. I will not deal with the technical difficulties in finding bitcoin accounts; what I will concentrate on in this article is finding the correct legal tools to recover the assets and what other options are available when it does not work.’
Drystone Chambers, 23rd October 2017
Source: drystone.com
‘Proportionality involves more than simply comparing budgets with the size of the damages claimed, a High Court judge has made clear in deciding that costs management should be applied in a case worth £350m.’
Litigation Futures, 14th November 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘The Court of Appeal has asked a costs judge to look again at the application of proportionality after ruling the new test was incorrectly applied. In the long-awaited appeal in BNM v MGN, master of the rolls Sir Terence Etherton held that senior costs judge Gordon-Saker had been wrong in principle to subject recoverable base cost and additional liabilities to the new proportionality rule.’
Law Society's Gazette, 7th November 2017
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘Not long ago I represented a pair of maternal grandparents in a case in Teesside. They had been closely involved with the family over a period of years, although the mother of the two girls at the heart of the case had moved away (not far) during recent times. The mother had various problems and the father barely featured in the proceedings. A few years back the grandparents had actually taken the older girl under their wing for a while (prior to the birth of her sister) and the girls’ older brother was living with them full time under a court order.’
Park Square Barristers, 6th October 2017
Source: www.parksquarebarristers.co.uk
‘A council’s imposition of a £5,000 fine on a property management business for failing to be a member of a redress scheme for three weeks was “unreasonable in the circumstances and completely disproportionate”, a tribunal judge has said.’
Local Government Lawyer, 5th October 2017
Source: localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The Supreme Court will hear an appeal in November by a litigant in person over the defective service of a negligence claim against a Midlands law firm, it has been confirmed.’
Litigation Futures, 29th September 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘In a decision handed down yesterday, the Court of Appeal in Harrison v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 791 determined important issues in costs budgeting. They are of relevance to all practitioners.’
Hailsham Chambers, 22nd June 2017
‘The Supreme Court has allowed appeals in R (Kiarie) and R (Byndloss) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] UKSC 42 by persons whom the Home Secretary wished to deport even before they had had a chance to appeal to a tribunal on human rights grounds against the deportation decision. It has concluded that the very system of appealing from abroad in such cases simply does not provide an effective right of appeal.’
No. 5 Chambers, 14th June 2017
Source: www.no5.com
‘The chief master of the Chancery Division has outlined considerable reservations about making a comment on incurred costs as part of the budgeting process, saying there is “little or no value” in recording a general comment such as that they are “too high”.’
Litigation Futures, 4th July 2017
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘An approved budget cannot be re-opened by a costs judge at detailed assessment unless there is “good reason” to do so, the Court of Appeal held today in a much-awaited ruling in Harrison v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust.’
Law Society's Gazette, 21st June 2017
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘The Administrative Court has held that priority within a housing allocation scheme providing that existing social housing tenants are to be preferred over other applicants, such as the homeless and women fleeing domestic violence, for certain local lettings of eg new and refurbished accommodation was justified and accordingly had not been unlawfully discriminatory for the purposes of art.14 and ss.19, 29 Equality Act 2010; the introduction of the local lettings policies had complied with s.149 Equality Act 2010 and s.11 Children Act 2004; but the operation of a system of direct offers, used particularly to allocate accommodation to homeless applicants, had not been sufficiently set out in the scheme and was accordingly unlawful.’
Arden Chambers, 31st May 2017
Source: www.ardenchambers.com
‘C was accepted for the full housing duty by Islington, with her 3 children, as a result of domestic violence. C is profoundly deaf. She had been living in Southwark, but following the DV, was in refuge in Islington and applied as homeless there. She was, eventually, given 3 bed temporary accommodation in Islington.’
Nearly Legal, 6th June 2017
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘A High Court judge has accused costs lawyers of “abuse of the cost budgeting process” following an “unjustifiably low” estimate of the other side’s costs.’
OUT-LAW.com, 18th May 2017
Source: www.out-law.com
‘BBC bosses say Sir Cliff Richard has spent “grossly unreasonable” amounts on lawyers after complaining about reports naming him as a suspected sex offender and taking legal action.’
Daily Telegraph, 4th May 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘New anti-money laundering (AML) regulations planned by the Treasury would impose “disproportionate and unnecessary” burdens on law firms, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has warned.’
Legal Futures, 20th April 2017
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
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