Costs—Order for costs—Conditional fee agreement

Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Ward, Moore-Bick and Etherton LJJ, 3 Mar 2011

The fact that an organisation was financially strong or a commercial organisation would not preclude it from instructing solicitors on a conditional fee basis

Benjamin Williams (instructed by Parabis Law LLP) for the claimant.
Nicholas Bacon QC (instructed by Barlow Lyde & Gilbert) for the defendant.

The claimant’s house was damaged by the encroaching roots of trees. He claimed under his household policy. The insurers settled. Exercising their rights of subrogation, the insurers claimed against the defendant local authority in his name but at their expense. Solicitors were instructed pursuant to a collective conditional fee agreement. The claim was settled on terms that the authority would pay costs. Before the district judge who conducted the detailed assessment, the authority argued that the success fee should be disallowed because the claimant had never been at risk in respect of the costs, which would have