Costs budgeting is here to stay so technical changes & a cultural shift are required, says Sue Nash
Like it or not, costs budgeting is here to stay. The speeches last month by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, and Lord Justice Jackson at the Harbour Litigation Funding annual lecture made that abundantly clear.
But two years in, nobody would suggest that all is well with the regime. There is little point now in complaining about the inadequate piloting of costs management—we are where we are. So what is needed is two-fold: technical changes and a cultural shift.
Tech changes
With Mr Justice Coulson chairing a sub-committee of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee looking at the costs management rules, and added impetus from Jackson LJ’s lecture, technical changes appear to be around the corner. The Association of Costs Lawyers (ACL) has set up a working party to identify the key problems we at the coalface are facing, with a lack of uniformity of approach by the courts possibly number one. New training is
