Dominic Regan navigates the trips, traps & tactics of litigation budgeting
Every litigator will be aware of the new obligation to prepare budgets. What follows is a series of warnings about trips and traps.
While budgeting arrived on 1 April, it should be appreciated that the court has the ability to impose budgeting retrospectively to cases commenced before the date of reform. If you are concerned about a seemingly profligate opponent there is nothing to stop you making an application for a budget. Frankly, I suspect that not too many old cases will be so managed as the judiciary is intimidated by the thought of having to budget at all.
Henry v NGN
On no account should one be lulled into a false sense of security by the Court of Appeal decision in Henry v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 19, which I wrote about in an earlier article. That was the action where the claimant substantially exceeded the approved budget
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