City litigators defend exemption

It is too soon to scrap the Commercial Court’s exemption from automatic costs budgeting, City litigation lawyers have argued in a staunch defence of the status quo.

Lord Justice Jackson recommended the exemption when he wrote his review of civil litigation costs. In June, however, the Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) proposed that the exemption be scrapped as it “may be unnecessary and inappropriate”.

The City of London Law Society litigation committee has now called for the exemption to remain in place, in its response to the CPRC proposal. 

The City litigators’ group, argues that: “Any change to the CPR should be based on evidence, and there is no evidence that automatic costs budgeting is either needed or wanted in commercial litigation of the sort conducted in the Commercial Court—indeed, the evidence is firmly in the opposite direction.”