England and Wales High Court (Senior Courts Costs Office) Decisions

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Senior Courts Costs Office) Decisions >> Burstein v Times Newspapers Ltd [2002] EWHC 9037 (Costs) (28 November 2002)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Costs/2002/9037.html
Cite as: [2002] EWHC 9037 (Costs)

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This summary of a judgment has been obtained from the Supreme Court Costs Office pages on the HM Courts Service web site. The citation used by BAILII is not an officially approved citation. The full text of the judgment may have an official Neutral Citation issued by the court, and may be available elsewhere on BAILII.

 

 

 No.24 of 2002

Burstein v Times Newspapers Ltd
28 November 2002
The Court of Appeal, Lord Phillips MR, Mance and Latham LJJ

This is another appeal direct from the Supreme Court Costs Office to the Court of Appeal, and was in respect of the refusal by the Deputy Costs Judge to allow cross examination of the claimant and his solicitors as to his ability, or otherwise, to pay his solicitors' costs were he to lose a libel action in respect of which he had signed a CFA. The defendant appellant suggested that the totality of the material put before the Deputy Costs Judge, which included the findings of a private investigator, showed at the very least a prima facie case for concluding that the respondents' solicitors must have appreciated that there was no prospect of their obtaining any of their costs from the respondent, insofar as there purported to be an agreement between the respondent solicitors to pay those costs any such agreement was a sham.

The Court of Appeal refused to interfere with the Costs Judge's decision to refuse to allow the defendants to take that point further, and at the end of the judgment of the court delivered by Latham LJ that Learned Lord Justice said this:

"The Deputy Costs Judge is to be commended for ensuring that the detailed assessment did not become an excuse for further expensive litigation at the behest of a disappointed but persistent litigant. Satellite litigation about costs has become a growth industry, and one that is a blot on the civil justice system. Costs Judges should be astute to prevent such proceedings from being protracted by allegations that are without substance."