Getting back to basics on costs

19 September 2025 / David Bailey-Vella

Issue: 8131 / Categories: Features , Profession , Costs

David Bailey-Vella breaks down the costs budgeting light pilot

The costs budgeting light pilot sets out to streamline the costs management process for lower-value multi-track claims.
It presents a step towards a permanent overhaul of the costs budgeting framework for lower-value claims.

In a significant step toward modernising civil litigation in England and Wales, the 179th amendment of the CPR introduced the costs budgeting light pilot scheme, also known as simplified costs budgeting.

Launched on 6 April 2025, this three-year pilot aims to streamline the costs management process for lower-value multi-track claims, reducing complexity and promoting proportionality in legal proceedings. For those practitioners engaging with the pilot, it is important to explore and understand the scope, structure, strategic implications, and practical next steps.

The pilot applies to Part 7 multi-track claims and is mandatory for eligible cases issued between 1 April 2025 and 1 April 2028, unless the court directs otherwise, with a value of less than £1m. The scheme is currently being trialled in the business

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content

If you are already a subscriber sign in

...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

Getting back to basics on costs

David Bailey-Vella breaks down the costs budgeting light pilot

The costs budgeting light pilot sets out to streamline the costs management process for lower-value multi-track claims.
It presents a step towards a permanent overhaul of the costs budgeting framework for lower-value claims.

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content

If you are already a subscriber sign in

...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

SourceURL:

Links:

E-newsletter Sign-Up

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All

Myers & Co—Jen Goodwin

Head of corporate promoted to director

Boies Schiller Flexner—Lindsay Reimschussel

Firm strengthens international arbitration team with key London hire

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

FCA contentious financial regulation lawyer joins the team as of counsel

NEWS

Read All

NLJ this week: Making Big Tech pay for digital addiction

Social media giants should face tortious liability for the psychological harms their platforms inflict, argues Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers in this week’s NLJ

NLJ this week: Leaseholders stuck in limbo

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ

NLJ this week: When a trial period becomes a ‘reasonable adjustment’

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has now confirmed that offering a disabled employee a trial period in an alternative role can itself be a 'reasonable adjustment' under the Equality Act 2010: in this week's NLJ, Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve analyses the evolving case law

NLJ this week: Ignore covenants at your peril

Caroline Shea KC and Richard Miller of Falcon Chambers examine the growing judicial focus on 'cynical breach' in restrictive covenant cases, in this week's issue of NLJ

NLJ this week: Courts caught in a ‘hierarchy of privacy’

Ian Gascoigne of LexisNexis dissects the uneasy balance between open justice and confidentiality in England’s civil courts, in this week's NLJ. From public hearings to super-injunctions, he identifies five tiers of privacy—from fully open proceedings to entirely secret ones—showing how a patchwork of exceptions has evolved without clear design

Error message

Getting back to basics on costs

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Myers & Co—Jen Goodwin

Boies Schiller Flexner—Lindsay Reimschussel

Corker Binning—Priya Dave