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Wasted costs applications: on the up!

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12 July 2024 / Clare Hughes-Williams , Catrin Davies
Issue: 8079 / Categories: Features , Profession , Costs
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Clare Hughes-Williams & Catrin Davies advise lawyers to guard against the rise in wasted costs applications
  • Wasted cost applications are not easy and should only be made in relatively extreme cases where the issues can be disposed of summarily.

As lawyers who represent the profession and their insurers, we have seen an increase in winning parties in litigation using the wasted costs jurisdiction to recover the significant legal costs that are often incurred. Rather than the losing party, it is lawyers who are their target. Recent cases support our experience (Al Tarboush v Yusuf Cassam [2024] EWHC 639 (KB), [2024] All ER (D) 121 (Mar) and Rainer Hughes Solicitors v Liverpool Victoria, Emine Karadag and Dzheylyan Velkova Ilieva [2024] EWHC 585 (KB)), [2024] All ER (D) 87 (Mar)). But should it be the lawyers who pay?

The court’s power to award wasted costs is contained in s 51(6) of the Supreme Court Act 1981, and s 51(7) states: ‘“Wasted costs” means any costs incurred by a party:

(a) as a result of any improper, unreasonable or negligent

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