Failure to attend detailed assessment

Snowden v Ministry of Defence (CA SCCO No 1 of 2002)

After the claimant’s claim for damages was struck out, there was an order for a detailed assessment of his legal aid costs. He had changed solicitors and at the hearing of the detailed assessment only the second solicitor was present. The costs judge disallowed all the profit costs incurred by the first solicitor on the grounds that he was satisfied that no part of the blame for the delay which caused the action to be struck out could be laid at the door of the claimant. The costs judge and the High Court judge on appeal refused the first solicitor s application for a rehearing. The Court of Appeal, although accepting the first solicitor may have had a legitimate expectation that the detailed assessment was going to be adjourned, he nevertheless did have notice of the actual date and did not attend. In the absence of any material to suggest that if the matter were remitted to the costs judge he would come to a different conclusion from that which he had previously reached, the first solicitor’s appeal against the refusal of a rehearing was dismissed.