Judges face costs dilemma

Judges need more training to cope with their new costs management duties under the Jackson reforms, an 18-month pilot study indicates.

From 1 April, all represented parties must propose and exchange costs budgets ahead of litigation, and judges must approve and enforce the budget unless there is good reason to depart from it. The reforms have been piloted in technology and construction courts and mercantile courts since October 2011.

“Some solicitors (and judges) regard it as a substantial problem that barristers in the past had little involvement with costs issues; and that most judges were barristers before being appointed as judge,” the costs management pilot final report said.

It reported that one judge with 16 years’ experience on the bench complained that he felt “under-equipped” for detailed costs management. Solicitors complained that judges were often “patchy and inconsistent” in their approach.

High Court and district court judges have been given one day’s training on costs management at Judicial College seminars held around the country.

A costs lawyer with 40 years’ experience told the pilot’s monitoring team that his major concern was “a woeful lack of training for the judges”.

Professor Dominic Regan, who assisted Lord Justice Jackson with the reforms, said: “Since budgeting was a centrepiece of the Jackson reforms it is essential that judges feel competent and comfortable with the process.”