Case No. IP-2016-000050

61.Just before the hearing on the form of order Ms Kogan filed a third witness statement. She said that she would be unable to pay costs in one go. Her only assets were sums held in three bank accounts and one third ownership of her parents’ apartment in Florida, which could not be sold while her parents remained alive. She offered to pay £1,000 per month. 62.Ms Kogan said that she receives a net salary of £2,295.95 working for her husband’s company and must pay monthly rent of £1,646.66. She has funded the proceedings so far from £175,000 compensation received from a road traffic accident suffered in October 2011. She has also borrowed £75,000 from her husband’s pension scheme which she will have to pay back. 63.Mr Weisselberg took me through some of Ms Kogan’s bank statements. By 10 October 2017 she had paid her solicitors about £90,000, with about £30,000 still owing. The compensation she received for the road traffic accident appears to have been spent, as does the loan from her husband. In her witness statement she said that she now has just over £4,500 in her bank accounts. 64.It was submitted on behalf of Ms Kogan that since she could not pay any likely award of costs immediately, she should pay the £1,000 per month she had offered, all she could afford. 65.The difficulty I have is that on the figures given by Ms Kogan, her current expenditure on rent leaves her with £649 per month to pay for food, utilities and all the other expenses she must have. There is no prospect at all of her paying £1,000 per month to the Claimants and Part 20 Defendants unless she has not been candid about her sources of income. Mr Weisselberg pointed out that nothing was said about her husband’s willingness to give her further funds, for instance. Mr Malynicz submitted that I should just accept what Ms Kogan said. 66.Ms Kogan’s witness statement did her no favours. I am left with no reliable guide to what Ms Kogan can afford. It could be less or more than £1,000 each month, I don’t know. 67.Consequently, I will make the usual order: the costs due to the Claimants and the Part 20 Defendants must be paid within 14 days. I hope that Ms Kogan will be able to reach an accommodation with the Claimants and Part 20 Defendants.