Commercial litigation heads toward fixed costs

Mr Justice Flaux, the judge in charge of the Commercial Court, warned litigators at a conference that he suspected a tariff of recoverable costs would be introduced in the commercial arena.

Mr Justice Flaux said he was not ‘advocating’ fixed costs and didn’t know what the tariff should be based on. He noted that cases in the Commercial Court ‘do not fit into any type of mould’, making it difficult to make fixed fees work. He added that he would prefer to see costs-capping orders used more to control excessive costs and that ‘anything other than a fixed costs regime would be appropriate’.

‘Inevitable’

Martin Cox, head of the national costs team at defendant firm Kennedys, told the conference that ‘a regime of fixed costs is inevitable’. Source: The Law Society Gazette

Commercial litigation heads toward fixed costs

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