Costs Budget required in Security for Costs application

A High Court judge has suggested that a detailed costs budget should be submitted with any application for security for costs.

​In the case of Agents' Mutual Ltd v Gascoigne Halman Ltd [2016] EWHC 2315, Mr Justice Roth suggested that the Court should be provided with a full schedule showing how the sub totals under the various heads were arrived at, including the rates being charged and hours estimated.

​The Defendant had already obtained security for costs in the sum of £500,000.00 and had submitted a schedule of £2.54m. The Defendant sought a further £1m but the Claimant was only prepared to offer £500,000.00.

​The Defendant had prepared a one page summary that gave no indication of the hourly rates used and the time allocated between different fee earners.

​Mr Justice Roth confirmed that, whilst the Defendant was not obliged to present a costs budget in the precise form of precedent H, the Court should expect to see a full schedule broken down into hourly rates and relevant phases.

​On the basis of the information provided, Mr Justice Roth considered the costs against the Claimant's budget of £1.86m and concluded that the Defendant's costs should be little different to the Claimants'. A figure of £1.9m was adopted and it was considered fair to award security for 70% of that figure.

​That came to a total of £1.33m with the Claimant paying an extra £830,000.00.