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It is recognized that unrepresented litigants may find it difficult to formulate their
submissions on paper. In such cases, the master would generally be expected not to
deal with the matter purely on paper.
A summary assessment of costs is a process whereby the court which has just heard an
interlocutory application assesses in a broad-brush way the amount of costs one party
should be ordered to pay to the other without a process of taxation; and ordering
payment to be made within a short period of time, rather than at the end of the
proceedings. Orders for summary assessment have been found to be a useful deterrent
against unwarranted or unreasonable interlocutory applications in England and Wales.
The Working Party recommends that the court should be encouraged, where
appropriate, to undertake such summary assessments, always retaining a discretion to
make a provisional summary assessment or ordering the costs to go to taxation.
Supporting procedural rules aimed at ensuring that the court has sufficient information
to make the summary assessment are outlined in the Final Report. It is also
recognized that efforts must be made to promote consistency and realism in the
making of such orders.
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