How This Index Works
Every costs decision covered on this site, grouped by what it actually decides rather than by date. Each entry gives the citation, the point, and a link to the full note.
These are written from the judgments and revised when a decision is overturned. That matters more in costs than it sounds: the conduct-of-litigation line below reversed completely on appeal, and material still describing the first-instance position as good law is not merely dated but wrong.
Who May Do Costs Work
CILEX and others v Mazur and others [2026] EWCA Civ 369
Court of Appeal, 31 March 2026. An unauthorised person may lawfully carry out tasks within the conduct of litigation for and on behalf of an authorised individual who retains direction, control and responsibility. Supervision must be real and proportionate. This overturned the September 2025 High Court ruling that had held the opposite. Read the note.
The Bill Itself
Duffy v Birmingham City Council [2026] EWCA Civ 146
Court of Appeal. A defective indemnity-principle certification does not automatically invalidate service of the bill; CPR 3.10 can cure procedural error, and the paying party is expected to engage rather than lie in wait. Not a licence to serve a defective bill. Read the note.
Kapoor v Johal [2024] EWHC 2853 (SCCO)
Senior Courts Costs Office. A bill claiming £258,583.78 assessed at nil under CPR 44.11 where the client had been invoiced around £84,000. The indemnity principle is a ceiling, and a bill that does not reconcile with the interim statute bills puts the whole claim at risk rather than a line of it. Read the note.
Ward v Rai [2026] EWCA Civ 816
Court of Appeal, 2 July 2026. A Costs Judge who declined to strike out a vague point of dispute, and allowed an annotated schedule served two working days before the hearing, was within the generous ambit of his discretion. PD 47 para 8.2 still requires an Ainsworth compliant approach; what moved is the consequence of ignoring it. Read the note.
Disbursements and Expert Fees
JXX v Archibald [2026] EWHC 630 (SCCO)
Senior Courts Costs Office. Medical reporting organisation charges are disbursements rather than outsourced profit costs, and a 25% mark-up was allowed on the evidence. It is a first-instance benchmark that paying parties now deploy, not a statutory cap. Read the note.
Under appeal. JXX and MIB v Santiago are listed in the Court of Appeal two days apart in March 2027, both on how much of an agency charge is recoverable and what must be disclosed to justify it. Anything built on the 25% figure should be treated as provisional until then — what the appeals could decide.
Entitlement and the Route to Recovery
Alphabet (UK) Ltd v AXA Insurance UK Plc [2026] EWHC 674 (SCCO)
Senior Courts Costs Office, 23 March 2026. Issuing proceedings to recover pre-action costs a defendant refuses to pay is not an abuse, and the test for instructing solicitors is reasonableness rather than necessity, judged when the decision was taken. The claimant won both points and recovered £599 against £1,006.80 claimed, because fixed costs governed the sum. A Part 7 claim, not CPR 46.14. Read the note.
Recovery in Specific Claim Types
Smith v Wigan Borough Council [2026] EWHC 660 (SCCO)
Senior Courts Costs Office. A £1,000 housing disrepair settlement does not automatically restrict costs to small claims track levels under CPR 46.13. The question is what the claim was reasonably worth on the evidence, and the evidential burden sits with the paying party. Read the note.
Abbott v Ministry of Defence [2026] EWHC 941 (KB)
King’s Bench Division. The substantive military NIHL decision on quantification method, audiograms, tinnitus and de minimis, and what it means for how a MoD NIHL bill should be built. Read the note.
Abbott v Ministry of Defence (costs) [2026] EWHC 2083 (KB)
King’s Bench Division. 60% of common costs, the arithmetic behind a £2.5m payment on account, and why the quality of the costs documentation put before the court directly affected the interim award. Read the note.
What This Index Does Not Do
It does not pretend to be every costs decision of the year. It is the set this practice has read in full and written up, which is a smaller and more useful thing than a digest assembled from headnotes. Where a case is not here, we have not covered it rather than judged it unimportant.
How DMD Costs Can Help
We prepare and negotiate claimant costs for solicitor firms in housing disrepair, MoD NIHL and clinical negligence. If a decision above bears on a live file, or you want a bill or budget prepared, send us the file and we will confirm a fixed fee before any work begins.