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17.7
The nature of a summary assessment of costs
A summary assessment of costs on the disposal of an interlocutory application has two
main features :-
(a)
The first involves immediacy of payment. The costs order most commonly
made at present is for the party losing the interlocutory application to pay the
costs of that application "in any event", that is, at the end of the proceedings,
whoever wins the case. Where there is a summary assessment of costs the party
against whom the order is made is generally required to pay promptly, within a
period such as 14 days after the order.
(b)
The second involves an assessment of the sum of costs payable in a summary
and broad-brush way, rather than through a process of taxation whereby every
item in the receiving party's bill of costs is potentially subject to challenge. A
summary assessment of costs occurs in lieu of a taxation and finally determines
the amount of costs payable and receivable in respect of the application or
matter in question.
The first feature is important because experience in other jurisdictions indicates that it
is an effective means of discouraging unnecessary and disproportionate interlocutory
applications. As discussed in the Interim Report,
the lack of immediacy of orders to
pay costs "in the cause" or "in any event" weakens costs as a sanction against
unwarranted applications or resistance. An order made in response to an interlocutory
application which ought not to have been brought or resisted, requiring the losing
party to pay at once the costs of that application summarily assessed, regardless of the
eventual outcome of the case as a whole, gives the costs order a real impact.
The second feature is aimed at enabling prompt payment to be exacted and avoiding
the costs of a detailed taxation.
Notes
Interim Report §§456-9.
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