Court Comments on Incurred Costs

Cost budgeting is now a very familiar part of the litigation landscape, particularly in the TCC where it will apply to most multi-track claims under £10m. However, there remain some aspects of the budgeting regime which can cause confusion, particularly for lay clients to whom the whole process can seem a little incomprehensible. One of these areas is the issue of incurred costs, and what role the Court has to play in their management.  Although cost budgeting is intended to be undertaken early in the litigation timetable, even by the time of the first CCMC, the incurred costs in a construction claim can be quite considerable. Seeing these costs in black and white in the cost budgets can be somewhat sobering, and for clients it may seem that the other side's (or even their own solicitors') cost are very high for the stage of proceedings which have been reached.  The question is, therefore, can anything be done about it?

You can read the full post on our Commercial, Construction & International Arbitration Blog here.