Taking time with costs budgeting pays off, says Iain Stark
Costs’ reserving and budgeting is never far from the mind of the conscientious fee earner conducting litigation.
In the Cat PI forum we are attuned to the fact that costs budgeting applies to cases issued after 1 April 2013. Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of consistency by different courts in particular after directions questionnaires have been filed in terms of the orders received. It is apparent that the inconsistencies place fee earners in a predicament about what to actually prepare, some courts appear to require very little to be filed in advance of the costs & case management hearing, while others require Precedent H forms, observations of agreement/disagreement and combined summaries.
Costs management is here to stay and this enables the parties to assist the courts in managing the litigation and controlling the costs spend. A statement of truth cannot be viewed as an empty formality and the significance of the costs budgeting when assessing costs at the conclusion
