Percentage award

Clark v Devon County Council CA TLR 22 April

The claimant claimed damages for negligence for failure to diagnose his learning difficulties, but the allegations of negligence against headteachers of two schools and two out of three educational psychologists failed or were withdrawn, and the claim succeeded only in respect of the negligence of one psychologist. In those circumstances it would be wrong to award the claimant all his costs in relation to wholly discrete issues on which he had failed. In order to reflect this in the order for costs the claimant was awarded only 70% of his costs.