CPR Part 45 - Fixed Costs, Profit Costs, or Disbursements

Introduction

Fixed Costs have become a permanent feature of mainstream litigation with CPR Part 45, in low value road traffic accident and employer’s liability cases, as well as package holiday claims. This has not surprisingly generated tactics by both Claimants and Defendants to gain a financial advantage in either maximising or reducing the costs at stake.

Fixed costs are now a feature in 90% of all litigation given the extension of the fixed recoverable costs regime to claims valued up to £100,000. This will inevitably see tactics used to gain a financial advantage. Disbursements remain a key feature of ‘game playing’ around recoverability, especially in arguments as to whether a particular item is chargeable as profit costs or a disbursement.

This webinar will guide you through what CPR Part 45 says and how the up-to-date caselaw has attempted to resolve the eternal dispute in fixed recoverable costs, as well as other topical issues.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The approach the courts have applied to the relationship between disbursement, profit costs and specifically fixed costs
• What CPR Part 45 tells us and the practical effect
• The effects of ADR in fixed costs and disbursements
• Dishonesty and fixed costs
• All the key case law, from Stringer-v-Copley, to Smith Graham-v-The Lord Chancellor’s Department, to Aldred-v-Cham and Powles-v-Cummings
• The art of ‘White labelling’ and opportunities to maximise profitability, or challenging items incorrectly claimed
• Case management strategies to maximise profitability when working within a fixed costs regime
• How the extension of fixed recoverable costs deals with disbursements

This webinar was recorded on 9th October 2024

You can gain access to this webinar and 1,700+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.