KA-2023-000225 - [2025] EWHC 1605 (KB)

The legal services rendered by the Respondent, and consequently the subject of the bill and the assessment, related to a personal injury claim in which the Respondent acted as the Appellant's solicitor. From the “Schedule of Work Done” prepared for the assessment the claim appears to have involved the standard elements typical in such litigation, including obtaining a General Practitioner report and an orthopaedic medical report. The claim progressed through the initial stages, and at some point, exited the online portal designed for lower-value personal injury claims concluding in a settlement and the recovery of compensation for the Appellant. From the funds received a net payment of £750 was made to a Gibraltar-based company, a transaction which gives rise to a discrete ground of this appeal but may have a wider significance.

The central issues before me, are whether the Costs Judge erred in refusing to order the Respondent to provide replies to specific Part 18 requests concerning the cash account and whether the Costs Judge was wrong to refuse to order the provision of the identifying company number for the Gibraltar-based entity to which the payment was made from the Appellant's compensation.