444 Chapter 17The resolution of business disputes
Expert witnesses can be allowed only if the district judge agrees that they should be. A
claimant who wins the case will be able to recover the court fees paid to start the case, as
well as up to £50 per day expenses for attending the court, travelling and accommodation.
Apart from these matters, the parties generally pay their own costs and so a claim for the
costs of using lawyers cannot be made. This is because the system is designed to be usable
without legal representation. When the case is heard the parties explain their positions and
the judge applies the law on their behalf. However, the court can allow up to £200 costs for
an expert witness whom the court has allowed to give evidence. The hearing of the case will
be relatively informal and an appeal can only be made with the judge’s permission. In order
to apply for permission to appeal, the claimant must pay a fee of £100. If the application is
refused £50 of this fee is refundable to the claimant.Fast track
Claims which are outside the financial limits for the small claims track will be allocated
to the fast track if the claim is for not more than £25,000. Fast track cases will be heard by a
circuit judge. It is anticipated that judgment will be given within 30 weeks of allocation
to the fast track. The parties to a fast track will almost always be legally represented by a
barrister or a solicitor. The winner of the case will almost always be able to claim the cost of
legal representation from the other party. This means that the loser will have to pay both
sides’ costs, including the cost of expert witnesses used by both sides and the court fees. The
actual hearing of a fast track case will usually take five hours and be conducted on one day.Multi-track
Cases are allocated to the multi-track if they are not suitable for the small claims track or the
fast track.
The three main reasons for an allocation to the multi-track are that the amount claimed
is over £25,000, or that there is likely to be considerable expert evidence, or that the hearing
of the case is likely to take more than one day in court. There is no standard procedure
for a multi-track case. The judge actively manages the case and sets the most appropriate
procedure. The judge may hold case management conferences in advance of the trial. These
meetings resemble business meetings and are designed both to make the parties co-operate
on certain issues and to identify precisely what issues are in dispute. In a particularly com-
plex case the judge might order a pre-trial review to consider both preliminary issues and
the way in which the trial should be run. At the end of the case, the loser will generally
be ordered to pay the costs of both parties. As the parties will generally be represented by
barristers, these costs are likely to be very considerable. The legal costs will include all the
pre-trial work done by the parties’ solicitors and might include very considerable costs of
expert witnesses.Payment into court and offers to settle
When a big civil case is looming, the costs of the litigation are likely to be very large. It is in
everybody’s interests that a settlement is made before the trial, as the costs of the trial may
be very substantial. A defendant faced with a claim for a debt or damages might pay a sum
of money into court in settlement of the dispute. This can be an important tactic. If the
claimant is not awarded more than the sum which the defendant paid into court, then the
claimant will normally have to pay all costs incurred 21 days after the money was paid into
court. This is because the claimant has 21 days in which to take the money paid into court
in settlement of the dispute. If the claimant is awarded more than the sum paid into court
then costs will be calculated in the usual way.