Costs – implementation of Mandatory Pilot Delayed

Implementation of Mandatory Pilot Delayed

In a previous Blog, “Bills of Costs – not fit for purpose?”, the writer noted that there was to be a pilot of the new format of Bill of Costs within the SCCO, initially on a voluntary basis, and there has been much in the legal press of late as to the mandatory implementation of the pilot across the wider Courts which was due to take place in April 2016.

In anticipation of this, and to prepare the wider profession for these changes, on 1 October 2015 the Civil Procedure Rules were amended once more (their 81st incarnation) to provide that after that date, in any matter in which the Court has approved or fixed a Budget and made a Costs Management Order, when a Bill of Costs is served under a Notice of Commencement, there must also be served with it “…a breakdown of the costs claimed for each phase of the proceedings…” in the format of Precedent Q. The very strict requirements were, again, the subject of the writer’s article “Commencing Detailed Assessment – New Precedent Q”.

We can report that, whilst the voluntary pilot will continue and, further, the requirements put in place by the 81st amendment of the CPR, at CPR 47.6(1)(c), remain effective and must be complied with, the implementation of the mandatory pilot has now been delayed until October 2016 at the earliest.

The delay has been brought about by the Civil Procedure Rules Committee’s decision last week to undertake further consultation with the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Once again, very much a case of watch this space…