The Senior Court Costs Office has once again rejected attempts made by a personal injury client for access to their former Solicitor’s file of papers.
Very much in anticipation of the guidance to be provided by the appeals in the cases of Green & Ors v SGI Legal LLP [2017] EWHC B27 (Costs) and Hanley v JC & A Solicitors Ltd [2017] EWHC B28 (Costs), Master Leonard has again considered the discrete issue of delivery-up applications in the case of Whale v Mooney Everett Solicitors Ltd [2018] EWHC B10 (Costs).
Master Leonard opined that:
“The claimant was given all the information he needed to exercise his statutory rights, and it is not the defendant’s fault that he did not retain it”, going on to further clarify that “in particular, I do not accept that it would have been appropriate to order the defendant to supply to the claimant copies of the defendant’s internal records or further copies of funding documentation already sent to him on more than one occasion.”
Another welcome result for law firms the subject of opportunistic claims. The battle rages on. All being well the Appeal decisions will mirror the views of the Costs Masters at the Senior Court Costs Office. Watch this space.