Costs—Order for costs—Claimant only recovering nominal damages

Chancery Division, Mr N Strauss QC (Sitting as a Deputy Judge), 15 Apr 2013

There is no “general rule” that a claimant who succeeds on liability but who is awarded only nominal damages will be liable for all of the defendant’s costs. 

Robert Hantusch (instructed by Langleys) for the claimant. Rupert Reed (instructed by Clyde & Co LLP) for the defendant.

In the substantive proceedings the claimant had been awarded £30,000 damages for breach of the defendant solicitors’ firm’s contractual duty of care (see [2013] All ER (D) 127 (Mar)). The damages were ordered in respect of the loss of director’s fees, a claim which had only been advanced at a very late stage in the action. The instant hearing was concerned with costs.
 
Nicholas Strauss QC

The claimant submitted that, since he had recovered substantial damages, he was entitled in the absence of any Pt 36 offer to the costs of the action. The difficulty,