Litigant in person

Wulfsohn v Legal Services Commission [2002] EWCA Civ 250

A successful litigant in person produced a rough costs schedule purporting to show that he had been engaged for over 1,200 hours on research and he also gave oral evidence, which the court had no reason to disbelieve, that he had spent well in excess of 1,200 hours. In these circumstances the right course is to start with the cap imposed by CPR rule 48.6(2) which provides that the costs of a litigant in person shall not exceed 2/3rds of the amount which would have been allowed if the litigant in person had been represented by a legal representative. The litigant in person also produced a letter to him from a firm of solicitors saying: ‘On the limited information that we have been provided by yourself and the Citizens Advice Bureau in the Royal Courts of Justice and having seen at a very preliminary stage the documentation with regards the matter we would estimate that the legal costs would be in the region of £15,000 to £20,000 plus VAT’. Doing the best it could on the information in front of it the court ‘being extremely rough-and-ready’ about it took the figure of £15,000 which resulted in a cap of £10,000. In addition to that the court allowed photocopying, postage and travelling totalling £460, resulting in a total award of costs of £10,460, instead of the £120 awarded by the trial judge.