Costs in infant approval hearings

Lisa Wright, barrister at 4 King’s Bench Walk, recently wrote a couple of interesting articles in the New Law Journal (18 February 2011 and 15 & 22 April 2001) on costs in RTA infant approval hearings.

The second article dealt with costs under the new fixed costs regime under CPR 45.27 to 45.40. The article, when considering hearings to assess damages, stated:

“Where the defendant is ordered to pay the claimant’s stage 3 costs, the court can order the stage 1 and stage 2 costs to be paid. CPR 45.38 does not provide for this, however, it is presumed that the court can make such an order given that in adult claims, such costs are paid at the end of each stage (paras 6.18 and 7.61 of the Protocol).”

The fact that CPR 45.38 “does not provide for this” picks up on the point I identified when the draft rules were first released (see New RTA scheme rules and win a bottle of champagne). Given the rules were introduced back on 30 April 2010, would it not make more sense for the rules to be updated to fill this lacuna rather than expect judges to have to make it up as they go along?


2 thoughts on “Costs in infant approval hearings

  1. Imagine that – Judges having to make the law when it is in fact a job for parliament. Can I have a superinjunction to protect my comments?

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