MORE MITCHELL MAYHEM: USE OF SQUARE BRACKETS LEADS TO COSTS BUDGET BEING DISALLOWED
A report by Tom Gibson in PI Brief Update makes worrying reading. The headline reads
“ Would a district judge strike out a costs budget because it contained the phrase “[Statement of truth]”, in square brackets, rather than the full statement of truth wording? Yes, in this particular case, so be warned!”
The report can be found at PI Brief update. The full report is behind a paywall. However the summary itself gives cause for concern.
See the report at http://www.pibriefblog.com/2013/12/24/a-costs-budgeting-horror-story-tom-gibson-outer-temple-chambers/
ADDENDUM
1. Following the initial posting I have had a message on twitter from Andrew McKie of clerksroom who states
“colleague of mine had one last week costs budget disallowed as wrong statement if truth on it”.
2. See also the comment on this section which points out that the Ministry of Justice precedent itself omitted the statement of truth.
A trap for the unwary, but one created very much by the Ministry of Justice itself. Why they saw fit to create, distribute and publish (on their Civil Procedure Rules pages no less) a Precedent H template which omitted the appropriate statement of truth I will never know.
I trust the Ministry of Justice will be immediately changing the Precedent H pdf templates on their website (http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/pdf/update/precedent-h.pdf and http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/courts/cpr/pd3e-precedent-h.xls) to do away with the square brackets and replace it with the standard PD22 2.2A wording from the get go.
Or perhaps not.
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