‘Exceptional Circumstances’ in the Fixed Recoverable Costs regime
This appeal considered the decision made by the Costs Master at first instance to allow the departure from the fixed recoverable cost regime under the ‘exceptional circumstances’ provision under CPR 45.29J.
The Claimant’s claim was started in the Portal however it became clear that the matter was worth significantly more than the Portal limit. As the matter exited the Portal the claim would then be subject to the Fixed Recoverable Costs provisions.
Mr Justice Stewart considered the previous cases of Qadar v Esure Services Ltd [2017] and Hislop v Perde [2018], with particular reference to Coulson LJ’s obiter comments stating that ‘It goes without saying that a test requiring “exceptional circumstances” is already a high one’.
One clear escape route away from the fixed costs regime is by having the matter allocated to the Multi-track.
The full judgment can be read here.