The Portal, Fixed Costs and Claims on the Multi-Track

News

18/11/2016

Since the coming into force of the fixed costs regimes for road traffic accident, employer’s liability, and public liability, it has been unclear whether fixed costs apply to a claim properly started in the Portal, but which ends up being allocated to the Multi-Track – for example because the case develops such that the case value exceeds £25,000.

The unfairness of fixed costs applying to Multi-Track cases is plain: the fixed costs assume a trial lasting no longer than a day, without multiple expert witnesses. Multi-track cases are likely to involve significantly higher costs than necessary for fast track cases.

The Court of Appeal grappled with this issue in Qadar v Esure [2016] EWCA Civ 1109, and held:-

a) The detailed provisions of CPR 45.29A and B, “lead clearly to the conclusion that fixed costs apply to all cases properly started within the RTA Protocol but then continuing outside it, regardless of whether allocated to the fast track, to the multi-track, or, indeed, not allocated at all but dealt with at a disposal hearing”.
b) Nothing in the CPR conflicts with that outcome, nor would that outcome be irrational, even though it would lead to “rough justice” in some cases.
c) But it is clear it was never the intention of legislators that the fixed costs regime would apply to cases that ended up on the multi-track. This can only have arisen from a drafting mistake. Something has gone wrong.

The Court of Appeal unanimously found that the fixed costs regime should only apply “so long as the claim is not allocated to the multi-track” and that this should be added in to 45.29B.

By no means does this resolve all of the questions arising from the fixed cost regime. What of cases that settle for more than £25,000, before a claim is issued? The Court of Appeal invited the Rule Committee to consider this as soon as possible. One answer is that a higher value case is not “properly started” under the Protocol, so not subject to fixed costs. Watch this space…

 

Latest News & Events

What can lawyers in the Family Court take from Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse?

The report of the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (“grooming gangs”) was published on 16th June. The Government confirmed the same day that action would be taken on each of the Audit’s 12 recommendations through introduction of legislation, police operations to…

The Dekagram: 18th June 2025

This week Sarah Prager KC joins forces with Rebecca Huxford of Stewarts to bring news of a jurisdictional challenge in which (perhaps somewhat unusually) practical and logistical factors were placed front and centre. Practical and Logistical Factors in Challenges to Jurisdiction The High Court of…

Deka Chambers Instructed in High Profile Child Protection Proceedings Involving Threshold, Privacy and Publication Issues

On 21 May 2025, Mrs Justice Theis handed down a series of judgments, decided over several months from July 2024 to May 2025, in care proceedings concerning siblings who were the subject of physical and emotional abuse perpetrated by their parents. One parent was a…

© Deka Chambers 2025

Search

Portfolio Builder

Select the expertise that you would like to download or add to the portfolio

Download    Add to portfolio   
Portfolio
Title Type CV Email

Remove All

Download


Click here to share this shortlist.
(It will expire after 30 days.)