Costs budgeting

The Judicial Office has agreed to Lord Justice Jackson’s request that there be a temporary break in costs budgeting in clinical negligence cases stating:-

“As a temporary measure, to clear a backlog of cases, the Queen’s Bench Masters responsible for the case management of clinical negligence cases are exercising this discretion in relation to cases listed before them between October 2015 and January 2016. This approach will be kept under review.”

“The court has a standing discretion to dis-apply the costs budgeting/management provisions in individual cases”.

The Chancery Division has also introduced a change which means that parties may now agree to extend the time limit specified in form N149C to file documents, including costs budgets, for up to 28 days without court approval.