Law digests: 17 October 2025

Costs

R (Bates) v Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court [2025] EWHC 2532 (Admin)

The Divisional Court ruled on the claimant’s applications for the costs incurred in bringing the judicial review proceedings and for ‘costs thrown away’ in the criminal proceedings in the magistrates’ court. The court determined that the decision in Murphy v Media Protection Services, which established an exceptionality requirement for awarding inter partes costs under s 51 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 (SCA 1981) in criminal judicial review, was wrongly decided and should not be followed. The court held that s 51, SCA 1981 preserved the High Court’s discretion to award costs in judicial review proceedings involving criminal causes or matters without requiring exceptional circumstances. The court found that the interested party had acted improperly and vexatiously in initiating a private prosecution, which justified awarding costs against him in favour of the claimant. It was concluded that the costs of the judicial review should be assessed on a standard basis and the application regarding costs of the magistrates’ court proceedings should be remitted to the magistrates’ court for determination