Main recommendations
The current broad discretions on awarding costs should be replaced by a clear, systematic framework of costs rules designed to support effective control of legal costs and to allow adjustments where access to justice would otherwise be denied.
Costs rules should allow caps on the costs that may be recovered, discouraging behaviour that wastes court and parties' time, encouraging settlement and promoting compliance with other procedures and directions intended to streamline proceedings.
The costs allocation rules should not impede public interest litigation.
Costs rules must specify how costs are to be apportioned and set out any exceptions. Information about the amount and likely allocation of costs should be given to the parties both prior to and during legal proceedings.
As a basic principle, where costs are to be shifted for all or a specified part of proceedings, a party who is awarded costs should be entitled to recover the reasonable costs that he or she has incurred in the course of the litigation.
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The information on this page was current as of January 2005
This page was posted 2 July 2002
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