How to Use This
This is the spine of a claimant costs recovery, stage by stage, with the detailed checks linked at each point rather than repeated here. Work through it in order on a file you are about to settle, or jump to the stage you are at.
The deadlines below are the ones that decide outcomes. More recovery is lost to them than to any argument about an individual item in a bill.
Stage 1 — Before You Settle
- Does the agreement or order deal expressly with costs, and on what basis?
- Is it clear who pays, not merely that costs are payable?
- If the settlement is global or inclusive, has that been decided deliberately?
- Has the damages outcome been recorded, with the offers chronology preserved?
- Where a Part 36 offer was accepted late, has the costs consequence been checked?
This stage is where most recovery is won or lost, because everything downstream follows from the wording. On late acceptance specifically, see the checklist before you agree the costs.
Stage 2 — The Papers
- Retainer, including any variation, and the client care letter.
- The settlement agreement, order or Tomlin schedule.
- Counsel’s fee notes and expert invoices.
- Disbursement vouchers, and evidence of payment where required.
- The offers chronology in full, both directions.
- Any approved costs budget, and any Precedent T.
Stage 3 — Drawing the Bill
The detailed checks differ by claim type, and each is set out where the reasoning lives:
- housing disrepair — entitlement, chronology, surveyor fees and proportionality.
- MoD NIHL — file-specific work, and why a matrix settlement does not cap costs.
- clinical negligence — the electronic bill, phase coding and the Transition Date.
- hourly rates and fee earner grades — the 2026 rates, and justifying anything above them.
- costs-managed claims — reading the bill against the last approved budget.
Stage 4 — Commencing
- Three months from judgment, discontinuance or acceptance to commence detailed assessment proceedings (CPR 47.7).
- Notice of commencement served with the bill and the supporting papers.
- Where damages have settled but costs have not, and no proceedings exist, consider costs-only proceedings under CPR 46.14.
- Check the bill is certified correctly before service — and see what a certification defect does and does not do.
Stage 5 — Points of Dispute
- 21 days from service of the notice of commencement for the paying party to serve Points of Dispute (CPR 47.9(2)).
- Nothing served in time? Consider a default costs certificate under CPR 47.11. Diarise the expiry rather than waiting to see what arrives.
- Check the open letter required by PD 47 para 8.3, stating what sum the paying party offers.
- The recurring objections are predictable by claim type: housing disrepair and clinical negligence.
Stage 6 — Replies and Negotiation
- 21 days to serve an optional Reply (CPR 47.13).
- Keep it to points of principle and concessions. General denials, specific denials and standard form responses are prohibited (PD 47 para 12.1).
- Concede what is properly conceded — it narrows the hearing and it is visible later.
- Make and record offers; they decide the costs of the assessment itself.
Stage 7 — Assessment
- Three months from expiry of the period for commencing to file a request for a detailed assessment hearing (CPR 47.14).
- Costs claimed at £75,000 or below are provisionally assessed (PD 47 para 14.1); the costs of that assessment are capped at £1,500 plus VAT and court fees (CPR 47.15(5)), excluding the cost of drawing the bill.
- 21 days to request an oral hearing after a provisional assessment (CPR 47.15(7)), with costs consequences for failing to improve on the outcome.
- The receiving party is generally entitled to the costs of assessment (CPR 47.20).
Where DMD Costs Fits
We prepare and negotiate claimant costs for solicitor firms in housing disrepair, MoD NIHL and clinical negligence: bills and Precedent S electronic bills, Precedent H budgets, Points of Dispute and Replies, and negotiation through to settlement. The work is done for and on behalf of the instructing firm, which retains conduct of the matter.
The fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins. Send us the file and we will confirm it before we start.