It's for costs... Directions were to provide a detailed statement of costs and a skeleton argument, dealing with same.

Dookist.

Take a read of the following sticky...partic towards the end of the post re Costs.

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?356814-The-Process-of-Litigation..-Court-Claims-Defences

Andy

Thanks Andy!

The part of the directions order I'm not sure of, and where I must serve & file by 1st March (!) is where the Judge has asked that both parties produce a skeleton argument, 'setting out the costs orders which they seek in the case and the basis on which they seek them'.

I am absolutely baffled and don't know where to start... I have sent a statement of costs which I believe to be reasonable, (£14k...) the other side's costs being £44k, but they are represented, so will be allowed to charge much more.

I was accepted by the barprobono because I cannot afford to pay, (Ireceive Pension Credit), but at each stage, and especially the past three hearings including the trial, they have written to me at the very last moment to say that they were unable to find anyone to represent me, and I have had to muddle through on my own, but at this very last stage I am failing to grasp the exact nature of the skeleton and how it should be drafted.

If I wait for the BPB to get in touch, I may be left high and dry at the last minute, so I must somehow try to attempt to produce the skeleton myself.

Is there a formula to a costs related skeleton... and where do I start?

Should I mention that the defendant has misled the court and perjured himself and should therefore not be entitled to any of his costs as he is in contempt of court?

He was guilty as accused but instead of accepting my very reasonable offer to settle out of court for £23k, he went on to defend the claim, bringing two applications for Summary Judgments which were both dismissied by the court.

After the first failed SJ, and before any substantial costs were accrued, I requested that he agreed to ADR.

He refused and I made several other requests throughout which were again refused.

I made another offer to settle after disclosure, again for an amount of about half of his predicted costs, and he still refused. Just wondering at what point in the one hour Summary Costs hearing I should mention all this, or does it go into the skeleton?

So confused!! Any help would be very much appreciated, please...

D.

Thank you, Andy... I may ask that the Court deals with my costs on an indemnity basis, due to the Defendant's contempt of court and unreasonable behaviour in refusing several offers to settle and requests for ADR at a very early stage in the proceedings and extending right up until the day of the trial...

He was prepared to continue racking up costs knowing full well that imy witness would prove the case against him if it went to trial... D

Sounds reasonable......now you need to lay it out in skeleton argument format

Yes.... Is there a particular format for costs skeletons... if so, do you know of any examples that I could refer to, please? I've drafted several skeletons over the years, but I'm finding this one difficult for some reason...once I get the opening line, it will normally fall into place...

I've put the usual heading; Smith vs Jones, etc... but it's been quite a complicated case and it's tricky trying to simplify everything so that I don't get too bogged down with the fine detail... so easy for a lawyer as it's just a job to them, but when it's personal and you've spent many years trying to get justice and you're so bone tired you can barely function... I can hardly wait until it's all over.

Well, this will my final document, hopefully....I'm never going down this road again!

Many thanks for your help... so appreciated!

Regards, Dookist.

It is not compulsory to use Form N260 but certain requirements must be met when preparing a statement of costs. Whenever a Court makes an Order about costs which does not provide for fixed costs to be paid, the Court will consider whether to make a summary assessment of costs......as the DJ confirmed type of costs?

To enable a summary assessment to take place then all parties must have filed and served a statement of costs no later than 24 hours before the hearing is listed to take place.

Perhaps scan and upload the courts docs in connection to this next hearing (redacted) then I can see what has been ordered...verbatim.

Andy

Oops.. I will need to remove names from the Directions Order first...D

Andy, I've managed to post without removing names and can't seem to edit...Sorry!

Andy, I've managed to post without removing names and can't seem to edit...Sorry!

Which post, Dookist?

HB

Hi HB... it seems to have disappeared... all sorts going on with my computer today... it doesn't bode well for filing this skeleton by tomorrow... Dookist

Just wondering about the format... not sure if this is ok or not, but might be too late to change it.... Thanks, though. Dookist

CLAIMANT'S SKELETON ARGUMENT

__________________________________________

1. On 30-07-2014, where the Defendant's actions towards her purchasers, Mr. & Mrs.XXXX, caused the collapse of the sale of her property on 09-06-2014, the Claimant served upon the Defendant a Letter before Action and the associated documents relating to the Pre Action Protocol.

2. The Defendant replied in an undated letter; he denied threatening Mr. & Mrs. XXXXand stated that he would take legal advice in order to defend any action taken against him.

3. Over the course of several weeks, the Claimant made three open offers to the Defendant, by way of attempting an early settlement of the matters relating to the dispute.

4. The Claimant's third offer, on 22-10-2014, requested that the Defendant withdraw his application for a Charging Order over her property, (valued at £23,227.44), and in return the Claimant would not pursue her claim against him.

(LD 1)

5. The Defendant failed to respond to the Claimant's offer.

6. On 05-07-2016 the Claimant's claim was issued in the High Court, (Queen's Bench Division), and was for an unspecified amount of compensation, in excess of £25,000.00, and to be decided by the Court.

7. On 09-08-2016, the Claimant served the Claim and the response pack on the Defendant.

8. On 30-08-2016, the Claimant filed a request for default judgment.

9. On 31-08-2016, the Defendant's legal represenatative served their Notice of Acting.

10. On 01-09-2016, the Court directed that the Claimant provide (another) Certificate of Service. (LD 2)

11. On 14-09-2016, the Court informed the Defendant that a default judgment had been entered against him. (LD 3)

12. On 22-09-2016, the Court informed the Claimant that her claim had been acknowledged and defended. (LD 4)

*(The Acknowledgement of Service was not included amongst the documents for disclosure, and the Claimant saw it for the very first time when it was included in the Trial Bundle. She notes that the destination postcode/address appears to be missing from the attached 'proof' of service receipt). (LD 5)

13. The Defendant's detailed costs schedule, (at 3-13), show that his representatives claimed to be 'dealing with the Defendant's AOS', however, they would have been out of time to do so, being as they started acting only on 30-08-2016.

14. The Defendant, in his costs schedule,(at 17-39), claims costs for his application for Summary Judgment which was to be heard as a preliminary issue at the Hearing for the CMC at the High Court on 20-12-2016, however, the hearing was adjourned due to the very late service of his Skeleton Argument, just 10 minutes prior to the hearing, which incurred wasted, and therefore, unrecoverable costs.

*There were further substantial costs relating to his application, including long distance travel and overnight accomodation, etc., for more than one legal representative. These excessive costs would be repeated at the re-listed hearing on 06-03-2017, where the Defendant's application for Summary Judgment was dismissed in its entirety.

15. On 06-03-2017, at the hearing for the Defendant's unsuccessful application for Summary Judgment, the Claimant was permitted to amend her Particulars of Claim to provide full quantification of the actual loss said to be caused by the Defendant's actions in relation to her collapsed sale.

16. By way of evidence, and to quantify her loss, the Claimant sought to rely upon a full structural survey which had been carried out in November 2013, on behalf of a prospective purchaser.

She believed her loss to be in the region of £135,000.00, based upon the difference between the valuation of £240,000.00 as contained within that report, and Mr. & Mrs. XXXt's offer of £375,000.00, being the offer for the purchase of her property.

17. Whilst the Claimant retained a true and honest belief that the report she had provided was an accurate assessment as to the value of her property, the Court required that a Single Joint Expert be instructed, so as to provide the 'true' value of her property as at July 2014.

18. However, in his report, the Expert Witness, Mr. XXXXX, did not take into consideration the structural defects which the previous surveyor had stated made the Claimant's property 'uninsurable, unmortgageable and unsellable in its current state' and which would 'significantly adversely affect the market value'.

19. Mr. XXXXX's report was instead based upon a retrospective market appraisal, which the Claimant felt did not provide the 'true' value of her property at July 2014, as required by the Court.

Mr. XXXXX stated at point 15:4 of his report; 'I would emphasise that I have not carried out any detailed survey or other appraisal of XXXXX XXXXX XXXXXXe'. (LD 6)

20. Unfortunately, the Claimant failed to realise the the implications of the expert's report, but in any case, she felt unqualified to question its validity and would have incurred substantial costs in bringing Mr. XXXXX to Court to be questioned.

21. As a result of the valuation, the Claimant was unable to prove any loss in these proceedings, save that of her conveyancing fee in relation to the sale of her property to Mr. & Mrs. XXXX, which, at only £30, she believes to be innacurate, as the sale was proceeding towards exchange of contracts.

The Claimant has attempted on several occasions to raise this issue with her conveyancing solicitors, who seem to have lost or mislaid her file.

21. The Defendant has questioned the provenance of the Claimant's conveyancing fee, noting that there was no mention of the Claimant's purchasers, Mr. & Mrs XXXX

For the purpose of clarification and confirmation; a sale agreement was in place between herself and the XXXXs, and the Claimant will file and serve their solicitor's final invoice, dated 27-08-2014. (LD 7)

22. The Claimant suggests that the Defendant's substantial costs in these proceedings arise as a result of his unreasonable conduct, whereby he has continued to defend, at any cost, the claim brought against him, and despite the fact that he knew all along that he had acted unlawfully and maliciously.

23. The Defendant consistently ignored the Claimant's offers to enter into negotiations or any attempts to settle early and before any costs had been accrued. Several requests to enter into ADR were refused and even at the later stages in the proceedings, her final offer to settle remained open to agreement, up to and including the day of the Trial proceedings in January 2018.

24. The Defendant deliberately made statements which he knew to be false, and by so doing, he sought to mislead the Court and pervert the course of ​justice. He was fully aware of the serious implications which would be caused to the Claimant by his dishonesty, had she been unable to provide the necessary witness evidence at the Trial.

25. The Defendant has committed perjury and is in contempt of court, and accordingly, the Claimant seeks costs on an indemnity basis, to be decided by the Court.

​XXXXXX XXX XXXX: .......................................... Date: ....................................

Andy, just to add... the Directions Order in relation to costs states that there will be a one hour hearing to decide quantum, limited to the question of conveyancing fees and costs.

The Court reserves the possibility of conducting a summary assessment of costs and the parties shall file and serve skeleton arguments setting out the costs orders which they seek and the basis on which they seek them.

Dookist.

Ok... I've re drafted the skeleton, having lost the whole thing when my computer crashed... arrrghh!! I'm snowed in and had to file and serve by email... I have apologised for doing so without permission... Can't be helped... I believe that you can file up to two days before a hearing, so, if the weather improves enough, I'll take the documents by hand to the court.... Wasn't there a case recently which went to appeal relating to service by email?

Wright Hassell or something... it did make me laugh... haha! Thanks for the help... D

Should be okay given the weather conditions and electronic submissions are becoming the norm now