HH Simon Brown QC continues his exclusive NLJ online series on costs management post-Jackson
Civil litigation lawyers who have recently returned from their well-earned long vacation will have been stunned to read their LexisNexis alert about the “Plebgate” libel case involving Andrew Mitchell MP and News Group Newspapers.
At the case management conference (CMC) at the beginning of the long vacation, Master McCloud ruled that Mr Mitchell will only recover his court fees of £2,000 in costs from the defendants if he is successful in his £150,000 (maximum) libel action against them and will, therefore, have to bear his own lawyer’s costs of £500,000 leaving him (or perhaps them) £348,000 out of pocket.
This will, no doubt, strike experienced returnees as bizarrely unfair, but how did it happen? Quite simply, he and his solicitors had failed comply with the rules (CPR 3.13) and an order made about the filing his costs budget about costs budgeting.
