    |
|
| Home About Us Services Advocacy People Costs updates Newsroom Contact Us Print this page |
|
Sunday 05th September 2010 | |||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
Negotiation & Assessment Raising conduct on detailed assessmentJoseph Aaron v. Michael Shelton [2004] EWHC 1162 (QB) Mr Aaron was a qualified solicitor and raised issues of misconduct as part of his action, but it failed quite spectacularly at trial and Mr Aaron consented to pay costs in the usual way without reference to the conduct point. At the subsequent detailed assessment of costs Mr Aaron tried to raise issues of conduct in relation to the litigation, in order to challenge the Defendant’s costs on assessment. However the case had gone to trial and it was before the Trial Judge that these concerns should have been aired (which they had not been). Effectively, by waiting until assessment, the Claimant had missed the boat and was precluded from raising conduct at that later stage. This was quite an extreme case (disciplinary proceedings apparently followed) but the principle has wide-ranging implications. If a matter is going to trial, and you are in any doubt as to whether the issue of conduct should be raised at trial or left over until detailed assessment, raise it at trial. If the Judge reserves it until detailed assessment, you have left the door open; if you fail to raise it at all, you will not succeed in raising it for the first time when costs come to be decided. Where a case did not go to trial concerns over conduct should be embodied within a consent order. If there is a Part 36/payment into court situation (where acceptance will lead to a deemed order), or where the receiving party will not consent to conduct being referred to within a consent order, the paying party should attempt to keep the door open on conduct by referring to it in open correspondence. Thus the receiving party cannot argue that it would never have accepted the settlement offer, had it known its costs were liable to be attacked on grounds of conduct. Back to top 1. Negotiating costs 2. Detailed assessment 4. Supreme Court Costs Office - Fees 5. Summary assessment |
|||||||||
|
 |
