PI Brief Update

Future Case Management and Legal Costs: a point of principle & restrained guidance in Hadley v Przybylo [2024] EWCA Civ 250 - Amy Lanham Coles, Temple Garden Chambers

24/04/24. This case raised an important question: is the cost of a fee earner’s attendance at rehabilitation case management meetings recoverable as legal costs?

BACKGROUND

Following catastrophic injuries sustained by the Claimant in a road traffic accident and admission of negligence by the Defendant, this claim was settled (subject to approval) for a lump sum of £5.6 million and an annual sum of £170,000 for case and care management. Costs remained in dispute and following ADR there was one contested item of future costs. The Claimant sought to include substantial sums of future costs for the Claimant’s solicitors’ attendance at case management meetings with the Claimant’s medical and other professionals. This had been included in the “issues and statements of case” phase on Form H.

In the court below, Master McCloud accepted the Defendant’s submission that “costs” were legal costs incurred in the progress of litigation (para 15). She considered that these proposed future costs were inherently “non-progressive” (para 16) and therefore disallowed £52,000 worth of costs. The Claimant appealed.

JUDGMENT

The Court of Appeal disagreed with the Master, allowing the appeal and concluding these costs were recoverable in theory. The Court sidestepped the question as to whether these costs ought to or could be claimed as damages (at paras 27-28). Focusing on costs recovery, the Court placed emphasis on s. 51(1) Senior Courts Act 1981 and the principle that a party could...

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