Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

High Court cuts Dieselgate GLO budgets: proportionality, reasonableness, agreed costs and hourly rates clarified for costs management in large-scale group litigation (England and Wales)

Published on: 15 July 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Dispute Resolution expert

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Article summary

Pan NOx Emissions Litigations [2024] EWHC 1728 (KB)

What are the practical implications of this case?

The ruling distilled several central themes of costs management in extensive group proceedings, with potential read-across to other high-value disputes. It confirmed that, notwithstanding sizeable sums, the court will not allow an open chequebook approach to costs.

Approach to agreed costs

With the parties’ agreement, the court set budgets for items they had already settled. Strictly, that cut across CPR 3.15(1), which prevents judicial intervention in approved phases. The judges observed, however, that the court could instead decline approval entirely and require fresh budgets. Their course delivered the same practical result without direct interference.

Proportionality

The court stressed that every factor in CPR 44.3(5) feeds into the proportionality assessment, and it also underlined a separate test of reasonableness, namely costs ‘bearing some resemblance to the work reasonably required to properly, but efficiently, advance these claims’ (at para [33]).

Hourly rates

It was acceptable for a party to propose a budget on rates below those actually billed, provided this was transparent. That approach simply recognises that the higher rates...

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