Since costs management was introduced in April 2013, one of its key difficulties has been the strain that it has placed on the court’s resources. In part, this is due to often hotly contested arguments over the party’s respective budgets. The pressure became so great in the RCJ that cost budgeting in clinical negligence matters was temporarily suspended in the latter half of 2015, to allow the court to deal with the backlog.
This fundamental problem with costs management appears to have been at the forefront of the minds of those drafting the 83rd update to the CPR, which came into force on 6 April 2016. Of those changes to the rules which affect costs management, the focus now appears to be on encouraging the parties to reach agreement in so far as is possible, and reducing the level of intervention required from the court. Continue reading
