Specialists International
This Knowledge Check examines the court's determination of the defendants' disputed costs budget in a residential defects claim. The claimants' budget had been agreed, but the defendants proposed estimated costs exceeding GBP 2.13 million.
The court applied the costs-management rules by considering the reasonable and proportionate total for each phase rather than conducting a detailed assessment or fixing hourly rates. The defendants' overall budget was almost twice the sum claimed and approached twice the claimants' agreed budget.
The judgment revised the allowances for witness statements, expert reports, the pre-trial review, trial preparation, trial, alternative dispute resolution and a contingent application. The parties were directed to submit updated budgets reflecting the rulings.
- The residential defects claim and sums sought
- The applicable costs-management principles
- The comparison between the parties' budgets
- The finding of prima facie disproportionality
- Witness-statement and expert-report allowances
- Pre-trial review and trial-preparation costs
- The trial-phase allowance
- Alternative dispute resolution costs
- The contingent further-information application
- Updated budgets and costs in the case