Costs
12KBW has a team of specialists in costs disputes and litigation funding.
Members of the costs team are able to advise and appear on solicitor client costs issues, advise and represent parties in high value inter partes detailed assessments in the Senior Courts Costs Office, as well as arguing both technical and general costs points at all levels from the County Court to the Supreme Court and Privy Council.
Over the last 25 years our barristers have been instructed in key cases concerning the enforceability of conditional fee agreements, success fees, QOCS, fixed costs, costs capping, budgets, the level of ATE premiums, interest on costs, solicitors’ hourly rates in high value cases, the format of electronic bills and the relevance of costs estimates and costs budgets.
The head of our team, Andrew Roy KC, sits as a Deputy Costs Judge in the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO). In 2025 Simon Browne KC joined the 12KBW costs team. He was an author of the Sweet & Maxwell Practitioner text on Costs between 2008 to 2018 and is appointed to sit as a barrister costs assessor in the High Court and on the Cost Committee of the Civil Justice Council. Several of our costs barristers also sit as civil judges, giving them added insight into costs issues.
Reflecting its status as one the premium personal injury sets in the country, the team has particular expertise in costs disputes arising from personal injury claims and brings notable crossover expertise to these cases. Most 12KBW barristers are regularly instructed at costs management hearings and on other costs issues, such as the consequences of Part 36 offers and qualified one-way costs shifting (“QOCS”). Regardless of the size of the case, our barristers instructed in substantive claims can also argue the important points relating to costs and budgets.
Members of the costs team advise on and draft litigation funding agreements together with advice on the adequacy of insurance provision. They also appear on security for costs applications and consequential costs hearings in commercial cases.
Certain barristers also specialise in advising on costs issues in group litigation in the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the High Court, including advising on and drafting retainers and common costs agreements.
12KBW is renowned for its team of mediators and offers costs dispute mediation as part of its comprehensive service.
Notable recent 12KBW costs cases include:
- Attersley v UK Insurance Ltd [2025] EWHC 884 (KB); appeal on the interplay of fixed costs and Part 36.
- Nix v Emerdata Limited (2025) Business and Property Court; Consequential costs orders arising from the demise of Cambridge Analytica.
- Ruhumatally v The State and another (Mauritius) (2025); Privy Council decision on the application of UK law on CFAs to Commonwealth countries.
- The Guaido Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela (Appellant) v The Maduro Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela (Respondent) (2024); Assessment of costs in Supreme Court over issues of indemnity principle and retainers.
- Santiago v MIB [2023] EWCA Civ 838; [2024] 1 WLR 1063; Court of Appeal test case as to the recovery of interpreter fees in the fixed costs regime.
- Hussein v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2024); Supreme Court assessment determining (1) the impact of the Supreme Court practice direction on counsel’s fees; (2) the impact of legal aid funding on the cost recoverable between parties; (3) remote working and hourly rates.
- Mathieu v Hinds (No. 2: Costs) [2022] EWHC 1624 (QB); appropriate costs order where an injured artist who claimed over £33M recovered a little over £3M. The first reported judgment to consider the efficacy of a full and final offer where a claimant obtained provisional damages.
- Ho v Adelekun (No. 2) [2021] UKSC 43; [2021] 1 WLR 5132; landmark Supreme Court appeal on the QOCS and set off.
- Thomas v PGI Group Ltd [2021] EWHC 2776 (QB); costs capping in a group action for sexual assault.
- Green v Generali FA and Kimmins [2021] 11 WLUK 393 (apportionment of costs in overlapping claims).
- Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Plc v Dechert LLP [2021] 3 WLUK 109; a application in 2021 for £20m security for costs.
- Finsbury Food Group Plc v Dover [2020] EWHC 2176 (QB); [2020] 1 WLR 4496; [2020] Costs LR 1035 appeal as to the recoverability of counsel’s fees under the fixed costs regime.
- Butler v Bankside Commercial [2020] EWCA Civ 203; [2020] PNLR 15 challenge to the termination of a conditional fee agreement by the solicitor for rejecting an opinion about making a settlement with the client’s opponent.
- Deepchand v Sooben [2020] EWCA 1409; [2020] Costs LR 1633; appeal as to the correct costs order following the refusal of a non-party costs order on the grounds of proportionality.
- Ho v Adelekun (No. 1)[2019] EWCA Civ 1988; [2020] RTR 6; important appeal on the application of the fixed costs regime.
- Richard Slade & Co. v Boodia [2018] EWCA Civ 2667; [2019] 1 WLR 1126 – Court of Appeal decision that an interim statute bill need not include both profit costs and disbursements in respect of the period to which it covers.
- Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Plc v Dechert LLP [2016] EWCA Civ 375; [2016] 1 WLR 5027; Court of Appeal decision on legal professional privilege between the parties on a solicitor client assessment.
- Coventry v Lawrence [2015] UKSC 50; [2015] 1 WLR 3485; Landmark Supreme Court decision on the compatibility of CFA uplifts and ATE insurance premiums with the ECHR).
- Page v RGC Restaurants Ltd [2018] EWHC 2688 (QB); [2019] 1 W.L.R. 22; appeal on the effect of incomplete costs budgets.
- Higgins & Co Lawyers Ltd v Evans [2019] EWHC 2809 (QB); [2020] 1 WLR 141; appeal on CFA enforceability.
- NJL v PTE [2018] EWHC 3570 (QB); [2018] 6 Costs LR 1389; appeal on success fees in catastrophic claims.
- GL v PM [2018] EWHC 2268 (QB); appeal on security for costs and QOCS.
- Marsh v Ministry of Justice [2017] EWHC 3185 (QB); effect of change in the discount rate on Part 36 offer.
- Times Newspapers Ltd & Ors v Flood & Ors [2017] UKSC 33; [2017] 1 WLR 141 – Supreme Court appeal by three national newspapers (The Times, Daily Mail, and The Mirror) against the payment of success fees and after the event insurance premiums to privacy and defamation claimants funded by conditional fee agreements based upon the newspapers’ freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
- BNM v MGN [2017] EWCA Civ 1767; [2018] 1 WLR 1450; first appeal case to review the test of proportionality in costs and transitional provisions of the CPR for recovery of the additional liabilities.
- Shaw v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough [2014] EWCA Civ 1678; [2015] PIQR P8; appeal on effect of a non-compliant Part 36 offer.
