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Proposal 32
The court should be encouraged to make, whenever possible, summary assessments of costs
at the conclusion of interlocutory applications.
The court should, whenever appropriate (whether as a response to an unwarranted
application or unwarranted resistance to an application, with a view to saving costs or
otherwise), make a summary assessment of costs when disposing of interlocutory
applications.
Rules and practice directions along the lines indicated in this section of the Final Report
should be adopted to regulate the making and implementation of orders for the summary
assessments of costs.
All available reliable information bearing on current levels of professional fees and charges
should be collected and made available to the court with a view to promoting consistency
and realism in the court's approach to the summary assessment of costs.
All judges and masters who may be involved in the summary assessment of costs should
undertake training and attend conferences designed to enhance and keep current their
knowledge regarding professional costs and to promote consistency of approach in making
summary assessments.
Judges and masters should be empowered to make provisional summary assessments of costs,
whereby the assessed sum must promptly be paid but allowing either party, at the end of the
main proceedings, to insist on a taxation of the relevant costs with a view to adjusting the
quantum of the payment made, but with the party who insists on such a taxation being at risk
as to a special order for the costs of the taxation and other possible sanctions in the event that
the taxation does not result in a proportionate benefit to him.
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