High Court: Senior Courts Costs Office judgments, 2022

An extension of time under regulation 31 of the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 requires a good reason. In the absence of a good reason, an…

Time for appealing a graduated-fee determination may be extended for good reason. Where there is no good reason, an extension remains possible only in…

A judge is not disqualified merely because a litigant criticises judicial decisions or considers them wrong. Recusal requires actual bias, or apparent bias…

Under paragraph 29 of Schedule 1 to the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, circuit boundaries are not irrelevant when assessing expenses for a…

The court has discretion under CPR 40.8 and CPR 44.2(6)(g) to award interest on costs from before judgment. The default remains the incipitur rule: interest…

Where an appeal succeeds only in part, the costs award should reflect both the successful and unsuccessful issues. The court may award a contribution where the…

For graduated-fee purposes, successive electronic versions of an indictment will ordinarily be treated as amendments to one indictment, rather than separate…

For a value-dependent graduated fee classification, the litigator must rebut the regulatory presumption that the value did not exceed the relevant threshold.…

For the purposes of calculating prosecution evidence pages under the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, electronic material served by the…

Under the Litigators Graduated Fee Scheme, work connected with the execution of a bench warrant ordinarily falls within the existing graduated fee and does not…

Under the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, electronically served documentary or pictorial exhibits do not automatically count as pages of…

For graduated-fee purposes, the production of a further electronic indictment does not necessarily create a separate case. The question is whether the later…

In assessing publicly funded criminal appeal fees, the determining officer must allow reasonable remuneration by applying the relevant factors, including…

Assessment of criminal legal aid costs requires two distinct stages. First, the determining officer must assess the individual items, or use an appropriately…

A party who wishes to participate actively in English civil proceedings must identify itself. That requirement applies even where the party becomes involved…

On a solicitor-and-client assessment, costs must be reasonable, properly incurred and supported by clear contractual information. A solicitor relying on…

On a detailed assessment, the court may reconsider an earlier allowance before the final costs certificate is issued, particularly where the request was raised…

On a solicitor-client assessment involving a protected party, a success fee is assessed on the indemnity basis and without hindsight. Client approval creates a…

When construing a representation order made for publicly funded criminal proceedings, the order must be read consistently with the Criminal Legal Aid…

Under the graduated fee scheme, the relevant question is whether there was one case under the governing definition. Where separate indictments are formally…

A claimant seeking Part 18 answers in solicitor-client assessment proceedings must show more than a general suspicion. The court should require evidence…

A costs determination from central funds must distinguish the line-by-line audit of individual items from any subsequent global or category-based reduction. A…

Under the Litigators’ Graduated Fee Scheme in the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, replacing, staying or quashing an indictment document…

Assessment of publicly funded criminal defence fees is case-specific. The decision-maker must consider all relevant circumstances, including the nature…

For special preparation claims based on excess prosecution evidence, the court must first determine a reliable total count of the relevant pages and then…

When calculating prosecution evidence pages for digitally served images, a court should adopt a nuanced, percentage-based approach. Digital images that never…

On an appeal concerning compensation for a private prosecutor’s costs, the assessment must allow work and disbursements that were actually and reasonably…

A series of invoices may constitute one Chamberlain bill, delivered when the final invoice is sent, even where earlier invoices are described as interim…

When assessing a special preparation fee under paragraph 17 of the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, the appropriate officer must…

On a solicitor-and-client detailed assessment, a costs estimate is an important factor but is not ordinarily a binding quotation or automatic cap. If the…

Duplication does not automatically exclude electronic material from prosecution evidence for remuneration purposes. The court must consider whether reviewing…

A clear and unqualified acceptance of a settlement offer concludes a binding agreement on the terms offered. A later Part 36 offer cannot alter that agreement.…

For remuneration purposes, a Newton hearing requires the court to hear evidence resolving factual issues relevant to sentence. A guilty plea followed by…

For criminal legal aid remuneration, successive electronic versions of an indictment do not constitute separate indictments where they record amendments or…

Under the graduated fee scheme, where several cases are dealt with at one hearing, remuneration depends on whether the hearing is a main hearing for each case.…

When electronically served prosecution material has never existed in paper form, it is not automatically counted as prosecution evidence for remuneration…

Where a bill proceeds to detailed assessment, the receiving party is ordinarily entitled to the costs of that assessment under Civil Procedure Rules 1998, rule…

For the purpose of calculating a confiscation-hearing fee, a draft confiscation order is not ordinarily evidence. The relevant definition is confined to the…

A lower court is bound by a decision of the next tier of the judicial hierarchy, even if it considers that decision to be plainly wrong. Where that binding…

Costs recoverable from central funds under section 17 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 are compensatory, but only expenses properly and reasonably…

For graduated-fee purposes, successive indictments uploaded during the preparation and conduct of one trial ordinarily constitute an iterative amendment…

For the purposes of the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, a case is not a cracked trial merely because it was listed for trial before the…

For graduated-fee purposes, a trial begins only when it has commenced in a meaningful sense. The question is fact-sensitive and depends on how events have…

For an enhancement of criminal legal aid fees, “exceptional” is assessed against the generality of criminal cases and retains its ordinary meaning of something…

Where electronic prosecution evidence is substantively relevant and included in the prosecution’s digital case-system upload, the formal system page count…

For the purposes of the Litigator’s Graduated Fee Scheme, electronic prosecution material is not automatically counted as pages of prosecution evidence. The…

Special preparation under paragraph 17(1)(a) of Schedule 1 to the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 is assessed by identifying work caused by…

Under the Advocates Graduated Fee Scheme, an offence which clearly falls within a specified band must be remunerated under that band. Neither the determining…

An appeal under regulation 29 of the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 must be filed within the prescribed period. An appeal filed out of time…

Under the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, a cracked-trial fee is payable only where the statutory definition is satisfied. The provision…

Where costs are claimed from a child’s or protected party’s damages, the general rule is that the court must order a detailed assessment. A litigation friend’s…

For litigator graduated fee remuneration, replacing an indictment does not create a second case merely because the original indictment is stayed or quashed.…

Whether a trial has begun in a meaningful sense for the purposes of the graduated fee schemes requires a broad, pragmatic and case-specific assessment. The…

On a detailed assessment on the standard basis, substantial time claimed for document production may be reduced where it is unreasonable between the parties…

Conduct justifying costs sanctions under Civil Procedure Rules 1998, rule 44.11, requires more than an error of judgment, a hypothetical conflict, or conduct…

Under the Litigator’s Graduated Fee Scheme, classification as a guilty plea requires the assisted person to have entered a guilty plea. Where no plea is…

A defendant’s costs order does not authorise recovery of legal costs from central funds unless the statutory conditions are satisfied. Where legal costs are…

For a client’s application to assess solicitors’ costs under section 70 of the Solicitors Act 1974, the client need show only that a bill was delivered. The…

For graduated criminal legal aid fees, a case is a cracked trial where the statutory definition is satisfied, including where the prosecution offers no…

For a trial to have begun in a meaningful sense under the guidance in Lord Chancellor v Ian Henery Solicitors Limited, the court must have dealt with…

For the graduated-fee scheme, whether a case has reached trial depends on whether a trial has begun in a meaningful sense. Selection or swearing of a jury is…

A trial fee under the graduated-fee scheme is payable only where the proceedings have begun in a meaningful sense. A jury need not have been sworn, but…

Compensation from central funds under section 17 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 must be reasonably sufficient to compensate expenses properly…

Qualified one-way costs shifting ( QOCS) can apply to a legally aided claimant. Legal aid costs protection concerns the amount which the claimant may…

Whether a case has proceeded to trial for graduated-fee purposes depends on whether the trial began in a meaningful sense. Swearing the jury is not conclusive.…

For remuneration purposes, a second criminal trial does not automatically justify two full trial fees. Two full trial fees require trials involving different…

When assessing criminal legal aid remuneration for advocacy before the Court of Appeal, the determining officer must allow reasonable preparation time and a…

When assessing prosecution evidence containing images under the Litigators Graduated Fee Scheme, the relevant page count must reflect the form in which the…

When assessing prosecution evidence served electronically for criminal legal aid remuneration, the relevant question is not simply whether the material was…

On an appeal from a determining officer’s assessment of costs awarded to a private prosecutor under section 17 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, all…

Under the Criminal Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013, electronic evidence counts as prosecution evidence pages only to the extent that it is…

A recoverable ATE premium in a qualifying clinical negligence claim forms part of the recoverable costs under CPR 44.1(1). It is therefore recoverable under an…

In detailed assessment-related costs proceedings, the court must consider both the conduct of the parties and whether the costs claimed or incurred were…

The Senior Courts Costs Office has no jurisdiction to hear an appeal from a judge of the First-tier Tribunal. An application seeking such an appeal may…