KA-2023-000225 - [2025] EWHC 2112 (KB)

The Appellant had made a Part 18 request on 18 July 2022 and had also requested the company number for a Gibraltar company AJG Limited. A payment of £750, derived from compensation recovered for the Appellant, had been made to AJG Limited which was stated to be “wholly owned by Mr Gowing”, the Chief Executive of the Respondent firm. This sum was categorised as a “success fee” payment. The Appellant asserted that such a payment, made to a company in an offshore jurisdiction, not acting as the solicitor and providing no services to the client, appeared to be questionable and raised a reasonable basis for enquiry as to whether other payments had been made or received. The Appellant subsequently made an application (“the Application”) for the Respondent to answer the Part 18 request and supply the company number. On 31 October 2023, Senior Costs Judge Rowley dismissed the Application. Following this, on 15 November 2023, he ordered, among other things, that the Appellant pay part of the Respondent’s costs of the Application (“Application Costs”). On 21 March 2024, Sir Stephen Stewart granted permission to appeal in respect of the decision on the Part 18 request and the company number, refusing permission on other grounds. The appeal was heard by me on 23 October 2024 (with the assistance of Costs Judge Brown as an assessor). I allowed the appeal. The draft order before me, as proposed by the Appellant, provides that the Respondent shall answer the Part 18 request within 14 days and shall repay to the Appellant any costs paid pursuant to the Application Costs. It further proposes that the Respondent pay the Appellant’s costs of the appeal and the Application. An order in this form is variously opposed by the Respondents.