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PI Brief Update

PI Practitioner, June 2019

16/06/19. Each issue a particular topic is highlighted, citing some of the useful cases and other materials in that area. You can also receive these for free by registering for our PI Brief Update newsletter. Just select "Free Newsletter" from the menu at the top of this page and fill in your email address.

In a case where a defendant has brought an unsuccessful counterclaim including a claim for personal injury, he can obviously claim QOCS protection in respect of the costs payable to the claimant attributable to the personal injury counterclaim. However, does his QOCS protection cut wider than this, so as to cover the whole of the costs order made in the claimant's favour against him? The issue arises in dozens of cases each day, and there are conflicting lower court decisions as to correct approach.

The resolution of the issue turns upon the interpretation of CPR 44.13:

"(1) This Section applies to proceedings which include a claim for damages [for personal injuries].
(2) In this Section, 'claimant' means a person bringing a claim to which this Section applies or an estate on behalf of which such a claim is brought, and includes a person making a counterclaim or an additional claim."

Does the term "proceedings" in CPR 44.13(1) refer to the case as a whole including the counterclaim? If so, the defendant will benefit from QOCS protection covering the case as a whole. If not, and the word "proceedings" is essentially synonymous with "a claim", such that the claimant's claim and the defendant's...

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All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.