Costs budgets

Is there power for the court to apply the multi-track costs budget regime to pre-1 April 2013 claims?

The costs management powers in the CPR (r 3.12 et seq) only apply to multi-track cases commenced on or after 1 April 2013. However, nothing prevents a judge in the exercise of his general case management powers from ordering the filing of costs budgets if they were so minded. The order would need to expressly provide for the sanction for non-compliance.