When attempting to control costs, communication is key says James Maton
An amendment to the Civil Procedure Rules will introduce more extensive cost management procedures to multi-track cases from April 2013 (commercial court cases are excluded). This will require parties to prepare and exchange detailed budgets following the service of a defence. It is envisaged that these budgets will, if not agreed, be approved or revised by the court. When assessing costs, the court will have regard to a party’s last approved or agreed budget and will not depart from it unless satisfied that there is good reason to do so.
It is therefore instructive to consider the decision of Senior Costs Judge Hirst last month on the recoverability of costs exceeding an approved costs budget under a similar scheme piloted for defamation cases (Henry v News Group Newspapers Limited [2012] EWHC 90218 (Costs)). Here, the judge decided that costs exceeding the budget were unrecoverable in circumstances where the claimant had not kept the court nor defendant informed of the overspend.
