High Court allows appeal on costs of non-statutory costs assessment (Ahmud & Co v Macpherson)

Article summary

Dispute Resolution analysis: the High Court has allowed an appeal against an order for the claimant solicitors to pay for the defendant client’s costs in a costs assessment hearing. The Master had made two errors in his approach which went beyond mere exercise of discretion. First, he had rejected the position that the costs proceedings were analogous to an assessment of damages despite an order to this effect. Second, as the assessment had been ordered to be a ‘non statutory assessment of costs’, it did not need to be considered under the terms of the Solicitor Act 1974 as he had done. Therefore, the solicitors should be determined as the successful party as they achieved a costs order which was greater than anything that had been offered by the client. As such, the Master’s order should be set aside and, to avoid further costs being incurred, the decision was made at the same time that...