This is a matter in which a Defendant who successfully defended an Application had their costs of the Application substantially reduced as they failed to file a costs statement in accordance with CPR 44 PD 9.5(4)(b).
The Practice Direction dealing with this point states the following;
(4) The statement of costs must be filed at court and copies of it must be served on any party against whom an order for payment of those costs is intended to be sought as soon as possible and, in any event, –
(a) for a fast track trial, not less than 2 days before the trial; and
(b) for all other hearings, not less than 24 hours before the time fixed for the hearing.
In this matter, the Defendant sought Application costs of £3,690.00 however, the Court observed that no Schedule of Costs had been served as it should have been.
The Claimant argued that as a result of the Defendant’s failure to file a Schedule of Costs, there should be no order as to costs (and therefore the Defendant could not recover their costs).
However, Mrs Justice Steyn disagreed stating that "In my judgment, that would be unjust given the ordinary rule that the successful party is entitled to their costs. Nevertheless, the fault for not providing a schedule of costs clearly lies with the defendant and it seems to me, in the circumstances, the only sums that I can properly summarily assess are the costs which I am told have been incurred in respect of counsel's appearance at the hearing today and drafting of the skeleton argument."
On the basis of the above, the Court assessed costs in the sum of £1,250.00 – a reduction of almost 70%.
Conclusion
This a clear example of the importance of following the Court deadlines set out within the CPR or you are very likely to suffer the costs consequences.
For the full case, please see here.
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