Civil way: 14 June 2019

PEANUTS ROASTED

The FPR PD28A on costs has been amended (see ‘Civil way’, NLJ 31 May 2019, p16) as from 27 May 2019, to the accompaniment of a blast of silence. An extended para 4.4 provides that when considering whether to depart from the general no-costs rule in financial remedy proceedings, the court will take a broad view of conduct—bear with me, it gets more exciting—and will generally conclude that to refuse openly to negotiate reasonably and responsibly will amount to conduct in respect of which the court will consider making an order for costs. In a ‘needs’ case, this will include the applicant unreasonably litigating with the result that the costs incurred by each party have become disproportionate to the award made by the court. And where an order for costs is made at an interim stage (see FPR 28.3(6)), the court will not usually allow any resulting liability to