Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2019 #176On an appeal against HMRC’s determination of liability to inheritance tax the appellant made a number of applications in the First-Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber), including an application to opt out of the complex track costs regime, and for disclosure of documents alleged to be relevant to the HMRC’s assessment that the appellant had not been domiciled in the UK, but in Israel, when shares had been transferred to her by her husband. The appellant contended that she was UK domiciled at the time of the gift and that the spousal exemption applied.
The tribunal wrote to the appellant on...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2019 #176The Claimants brought a claim as executors of the late Louis Patience, who died in April 1997. They produced accounts setting out the proposed distribution of the deceased’s estate. These accounts were opposed by the Defendants (in their capacity as beneficiaries of the estate).
At trial, HHJ Matthews found that the Defendants’ objections were misconceived, though the Claimants did fail on part of their claim. At the subsequent costs hearing, it was held that the Defendants should pay the Claimants’ costs, though as a result of the Claimants failing on one of the issues, the costs...
Paul Jones considers the latest case concerning costs budgeting in multi-track claims ‘Where a costs budget has to be revised, the sums for incurred costs in the revised budget should be the same as the sums in the original budget, even though a substantial amount of further costs may have actually been incurred since the …
Continue reading "Costs: The curious case of when costs are incurred"
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Emma Holland and Luca del Panta look at an international family dispute which has lessons for trustees and PRs defending removal claims ‘At the costs hearing, the widow and daughter argued that the same general rule should apply on the basis that they had been “successful”, particularly as Dr Neupert had effectively abandoned his counterclaim, …
Continue reading "Costs: The cost of obstinacy"
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David Wilkinson considers when an order for costs may be justified in private law children cases and the issue of assessment on a standard or indemnity basis ‘Case law underlines that in children proceedings there should generally be no order for costs, unless a party takes an unreasonable stance or behaves reprehensibly.’ Family lawyers often …
Continue reading "Costs: On dangerous ground"
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Paul Jones reviews where the line is drawn between tactical and valid offers to settle ‘It was the defendant’s position that the claimant’s offer did not contain a genuine element of concession as it still included a claim for costs which negated any concession in relation to damages.’ The 78th update to the CPR in …
Continue reading "Costs: Part 36 genuine offers"
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After balancing the pros and cons, Julian Bremner makes a case for the return of modified Calderbank offers ‘A Calderbank offer, properly used, was a tool in a practitioner’s arsenal to try to prompt a recalcitrant party to carefully consider a realistic and genuine proposal to settle.’ Family practitioners who entered the fray post-2006, and …
Continue reading "Costs: A blast from the past?"
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Paul Jones looks at a recent case that highlights the difficulties that arise when the court rules and practice directions are at odds ‘The Master concluded that the Practice Direction does no more than set out procedural requirements for provisional assessment and does not have any effect on the jurisdiction to conduct that assessment.’ One …
Continue reading "Costs: Provisional assessment problems"
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Martyn Griffiths reports on a recent decision on proportionality ‘The judge warned against adopting too client-centric an approach to proportionality, finding that it is necessary to give “due weight” to costs figures which have been professionally compiled.’ In Malmsten v Bohinc [2019] Marcus Smith J addressed the approach to be taken by a judge when …
Continue reading "Costs: Cool calculations"
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Paul Jones reviews a case which illustrates that commencing notification of a claim correctly has a bearing on the costs recovered ‘Regarding the claimant’s submission that the claim was never intended to be a Portal claim, the Master held that the claimant had, in fact, made it a Portal claim by submitting a claims notification …
Continue reading "Costs: How it all started"
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