Costs in mixed claims: Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting

Brown v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2019] EWCA Civ 1724

The Court of Appeal has provided guidance on costs in cases that might involve consequential and mixed claims. The appeal concerned the rules relating to Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (“QOCS”) in CPR r44.13–r44.16, which provides automatic costs protection to claimants seeking damages for personal injuries, to ensure that, win or lose, such a claimant will not emerge with an adverse cost liability. In the case under consideration here, there was a claim for damages for personal injury together with non-personal injury claims, and the court made it clear that the costs protection under the qualified one-way costs shifting regime in CPR r44.13–r44.16 did not automatically apply in cases of this kind.