Costs Budgeting

Costs budgeting is the process by which the court manages the costs of litigation by requiring parties to file and exchange costs budgets setting out their estimated costs for each phase of the proceedings. Under CPR 3.12 to 3.18, costs management applies to most multi-track claims where the amount claimed is less than £10 million.

In practice

Parties must file costs budgets in Precedent H format. The court reviews and approves or adjusts the budgets at a costs and case management conference. Once approved, a party who has failed to file a budget is treated as having a budget comprising only applicable court fees. At detailed assessment, the court will not depart from an approved budget unless satisfied there is good reason to do so.