In the first of two articles, the costs team at Kings Chambers explains how privileged material can be disclosed in costs litigation
Costs litigation is litigation without disclosure of the type familiar in other civil litigation. This is because the subject matter of the assessment is, by its nature, often privileged.
With certain narrow exceptions, the court has no power to order a party to disclose privileged material. There are, however, two (linked) mechanisms by which privileged material may come before the court; these are by way of filing the relevant material at court (“filing”) and by way of “election”.
FILING
The costs practice direction (CPD), supplementing Pts 43 to 48 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), states at s 40.11 that, unless the court directs otherwise, the receiving party must file with the court the papers in support of the bill not less than seven days before the date for the detailed assessment and not more than 14
