Decision by Court of Appeal on fixed costs

Bird v Acorn Group Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 1096

Counsel: For the appellant: Steven TurnerFor the respondent: Ben Williams QC, Kevin LathamSolicitors: For the appellant: Taylor Rose TTKWFor the respondent: Michael W Halsall Ltd

An important point has been decided in a leapfrog appeal outlined below. The case turned on the meaning of the word “trial”, and the Court of Appeal held that a disposal hearing was a “trial” when a personal injury claim had started under the Pre-action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury (Employers Liability and Public Liability) Claims, and had settled before trial but after judgment. It followed that the correct scale of fixed costs was contained in the third column of part B of Table 6D in CPR r45.29E. Exactly the same definition applied to cases started under the Pre-action protocol for low value personal injury claims in road traffic accidents.