Janna Purdie provides an overview of the forthcoming CPR changes
Various CPR changes come into force during April this year. Here we review those changes coming into force on 22 April relating to costs budgeting. Note: the provisions are currently in draft and are therefore subject to change when laid before Parliament.
Costs budgeting exemptions
Lord Jackson, in his costs report, favoured all multi-track cases being subject to costs budgeting. However, as we all know, last April saw a number of different exemptions and whether they applied depended on a variety of factors eg the court the matter was proceeding in, the value of the claim or the type of claim. This caused an imbalance between the courts and less transparency for practitioners. From 22 April 2014 this is all set to change with the following changes coming into force:
- costs budgeting will only apply to Pt 7 claims;
- the existing exemptions are to be removed; and
- a much more workable blanket exemption is being put into place such that costs budgeting will not apply
