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England and Wales High Court (Senior Courts Costs Office) Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Senior Courts Costs Office) Decisions >> Accident Group Test Cases [2004] EWHC 90032 (Costs) (20 May 2004)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Costs/2004/90032.html
Cite as: [2004] EWHC 90032 (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.15 of 2004
The Accident Group Test Cases
20 May 2004
Court of Appeal - Kennedy, Buxton & May LJJ
The Court of Appeal in this case considered the recoverability of costs relating to and including insurance premiums as operated by the Accident Group. In particular the court considered the status of fees required to be paid to TAG’s sister company, Accident Investigation Ltd, whether such fees were disbursements of the solicitor, and particularly how much of the "premium" charged to the client was a premium in respect of the risk referred to in Section 29 Access to Justice Act 1999.
The Court of Appeal paid tribute to, and completely upheld, the comprehensive judgment below of the Senior Costs Judge on all issues taken to appeal.
However Lord Justice Buxton, who delivered the leading judgment, said this in paragraph 46 of his judgment:
"I would therefore uphold the decision of the Senior Costs Judge in its entirety. Whilst I understand why the Senior Costs Judge gave permission to appeal, and did so without limitation, this court has had to reconsider a series of matters that are questions neither of law nor principle, but rather issues of fact or judgment on which the court is likely to be slow to differ from the assessment of the very expert tribunal below. If in future similar cases should come before the Costs Judges they, and this court are likely, when considering applications for permission to appeal, to need to see detailed Grounds, and to require specific demonstration that those grounds do indeed raise matters of principle suitable for the consideration of this court."