I write about legal costs, litigation funding and related questions arising in civil litigation. The emphasis is practical: what the authorities mean, how the rules operate and where the real risks lie.
The latest articles appear below. If you are looking for a particular area, the four broad gateways provide a quicker route into the archive.
Costs
Commercial costs, Part 36, QOCS, detailed assessment and related costs issues.
Litigation Funding
Funding agreements, ATE insurance, security for costs and the economics of litigation.
Solicitor-Client & Retainers
Solicitors Act assessments, retainers, CFAs, DBAs, success fees and deductions from damages.
Group & Specialist Litigation
Collective proceedings, group litigation and selected wider developments affecting civil justice.
Recent analysis
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Costs chat with friends
This week I took part in the Practico ‘Costs chat with friends‘ with regulars Jeremy Morgan QC and Andy Ellis. Jeremy was kind enough to describe my contribution as ‘enormously illuminative’. Links to the various iterations of the programme are below. Video – https://youtu.be/JluOwGBASyU Audio Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/user-144902971/2021-05-05-costs-chat-with-friends-andrew-hogan-with-jeremy-morgan-qc-and-andy-ellis Audio Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/episode/4xffxvZwu6CN2l4RbCgkc1?si=383bfae2ecbc4a3b Audio iTunes https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/practico-the-podcost-series/id1445931706#episodeGuid=tag%3Asoundcloud%2C2010%3Atracks%2F1046097754
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Zoom III
Are you embroiled in a costs dispute with your client? Are you afraid you may become embroiled in a costs dispute with your client? My colleagues Erica Bedford and Kevin Latham will be considering the knotty issues of solicitor-own client costs disputes in a Zoom webinar next week. To book: https://www.kingschambers.com/latest-news/seminars-and-conferences/april-2021/when-friends-become-foes-the-arguments-in-belsner-and-beyond
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Common people
On 31st May 2021, the long-awaited reforms to low value road traffic accident reforms come into law, with detailed measures for the implementation of the statutory scheme prescribed by the Civil Liability Act 2018. “W” day has arrived. In this article, I shall consider the content of the reforms, their likely impact upon the courts…
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Margin of profit
Further costs conundrums arise in the context of confiscation proceedings which may follow from a private prosecution. If we take as a starting point, that a significant number of private prosecutions may be initiated by the victims of fraud or other economic crime, the prosecutors may well have a substantial interest in causing a convicted…
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April Skies
Imminently, the Court of Appeal is expected to rule upon the appeals against conviction by a number of former Post Office workers, arising from the Horizon scandal. The Gazette picked up the story here: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/ex-post-office-workers-reach-court-of-appeal-/5107886.article There are now apparently fifty one such cases, although they may yet be other appeals to be brought. One of…
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Mission accomplished
The clocks have gone forward and British summertime has arrived. The first tentative easing of Lock Down also begins today. The world is a little brighter, a little warmer each day and whilst deaths and hospitalisations are heading downwards, everything else is on an upward curve. I have even had my own jab, and whilst…
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Costs budgeting and clients
An issue which is often passed over in litigation until disaster strikes, is the involvement of lay clients in matters of costs, as a case progresses. Do clients have to be troubled with the nitty gritty of costs budgeting and management? Is that a matter that can be sensibly left to solicitors and their instructed…
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Costs by Zoom: the saga continues
I look forward to speaking to some 500 of you tomorrow, on the Zoom seminar Personal Injury Costs 2021. In order to squeeze in those on the reserve list, we have scheduled a further Zoom seminar on 4th March 2021. If you would like to hear mine and Craig Ralph’s views on hourly rates, costs…