Guides
Where the rules still catch people out
Settled procedure has unsettled edges, and new statutory regimes arrive with theirs already showing. These cover the points in commercial practice where the rule looks decided and the arguments carry on anyway, written for people who already know the basics.
Costs and funding
Civil procedure
Part 36 offers: what still catches people out
Genuine offer disputes under 36.17(5), the 35% additional amount that replaces indemnity costs in fixed costs claims, and why late acceptance is not a clean exit from the costs argument.
Costs and funding
Fixed recoverable costs: three ways out, three different tests
Exceptional circumstances, reallocation and band reassignment are not interchangeable. Different thresholds, different moments in the case, and a 20% rule that can make winning the application cost you money.
Costs and funding
Costs budgets: what CPR 3.18 actually protects
An approved budget covers less than most receiving parties assume, it is not a floor, and the moment to revise it is always earlier than it feels.
Costs and funding
Security for costs against a funded claimant
The gateway is the easy part. What decides these applications is the discretion, what the ATE policy actually says, and whether anyone has looked past the claimant to the people behind it.
Disclosure, evidence and sanctions
Disclosure
PD 57AD disclosure: the model is not what decides the cost
Issues for Disclosure drive the bill, Model C is persistently under-used, and the duty on adverse documents runs regardless of which model you end up with.
Witness evidence
PD 57AC: what a defective witness statement actually costs
Strike-out is the sanction everyone cites and the one courts reach for least. The more common outcomes are worse for the party that applied than the party that offended.
Civil procedure
Relief from sanctions: the third stage does the work
Most applications are won and lost on all the circumstances, which is where the least preparation goes. The buffer agreement is also narrower than the people relying on it think.
Statutory regimes
Building safety
Remediation contribution orders: who ends up paying
No cause of action, no proof of fault, and an associated person test broad enough to reach across a corporate group. The Building Safety Act reallocates remediation cost on a basis that does not look like litigation.
Corporate crime
Failure to prevent fraud: where the real exposure sits
The offence catches fraud committed for the organisation's benefit, which puts the exposure in the revenue-generating functions rather than in the finance team where anti-fraud spending has always gone.
Public procurement
Lifting the automatic suspension under the Procurement Act
Section 102 replaced American Cyanamid with a bespoke statutory test, and it demoted the adequacy of damages from gateway question to one factor among several.