Iain Stark discusses qualified one-way costs shifting
- Qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS), is a protective bubble against an adverse costs liability for failed claims brought by personal injury claimants, but it can be burst by a finding of fundamental dishonesty.
This test of fundamental dishonesty was first considered by His Honour Judge Maloney in Gosling v (1) Hailo (2) Screwfix Direct (Cambridge CC, 2014, [2014] Lexis Citation 316). He said it was to be interpreted “purposively and contextually” to establish whether the claimant was “deserving” of costs protection. On the facts, the dishonesty was so obvious that it was not necessary to have the claimant cross-examined. Interestingly, Maloney HHJ held that where dishonesty was crucial to around half of the total claim, that was sufficient to warrant the characterisation of “fundamentally dishonest”.
Maloney HHJ stated: “A claimant should not be exposed to costs liability merely because he is shown to have been dishonest as to some collateral matter or perhaps as to some minor, self contained head of damage.
