Trivial, serious or significant? Francis Kendall reviews recent excuses for breaches & shares the consequences
If parties and their lawyers have learnt just one thing about costs budgeting by now, you would have hoped that it is the importance of getting their budget in on time. But still parties are missing the deadline and then—facing a budget limited to the applicable court fee—have to roll the dice with the Denton test when they apply for relief from sanctions. It is worth reviewing two cases from the summer which led to very different results.
No sensible excuse
In Lakhani & Anor v Mahmud & Ors [2017] EWHC 1713 (Ch), [2017] All ER (D) 55 (Jul) the defendants served their £50,000 budget just one day late, but only applied for relief at the case and costs management conference (CCMC). HH Judge Lochrane in Central London County Court acknowledged that, in certain circumstances, being one day late with a costs budget ‘might not be regarded as terribly serious’.
However, he said there was no sensible
