Respondent and costs awarded

Hi,

I am the Applicant in proceedings on the grounds of adultry.

Petition issued Apr 2009.
Acknowledgement of Service returned Aug 2010.
Decree Nisi granted Mar 2011.
Consent Order granted Jan 2012.

At Decree Nisi the Judge ordered the Respondent to pay court costs. My sol prepared a bill totalling £1,391.00 for court fees, letters and emails chasing the Petition for 16 months and presented it to STBX''s solicitors.

STBX''s sols wrote offering just over £900 towards costs.

My sols wrote back with a letter explaining the additonal work carried out.

STBX''s sols wrote offering £1,100.00.

What can I do? I have spent over 3 times the amount he has in legal fees, yet earn a fifth of his salary. I am also the primary carer for our son and his partner has her own property and business and has no dependents.

I am willing to self-rep on this but not sure which forms to complete, which hearing to make and so on.

Thank you.

If the amount cannot be agreed the court will have to decide.

If the order is that costs are "to be assessed if not agreed", you will have to serve a formal bill upon the other respondent''s solicitor. They have 21 days to serve points of dispute and you have 21 days to serve replies to points of dispute. If no agreement can be reached during this period you can apply to the court for detailed assessment. The court fee is £325 but you should be able to recover this from the respondent if the bill is not reduced by 20%.

It is important to make offers to settle - if your costs are £1391.00 a reasonable compromise would be £1200.00 so the other side''s offer of £1100.00 is not far off. Whether it is worth spending a lot to gain a little is your call. I would make a ''without prejudice save as to costs'' offer at £1200.00 and proceed to assessment if this was not accepted.

Charles

Hello Charles and thank you for your response.

I would settle at £1,200.00 so perhaps your suggestion of a ''Without Prejudice Offer save as to costs" offer is the best way forward.

The exact wording on the Decree Nisi is, "The District Judge upon making the Decree Nisi ordered that the Respondent pay the costs incurred on behalf of the Petitioner in this cause".

Not sure if that changes anything?


Many thanks

Interesting this. My solicitor told me each party bears their own costs. Why is this case different? Have I got a surprise coming?

Limit:
The literal meaning of that order is that the respondent should pay your costs and that there is no facility to challenge those costs. Technically you could send a schedule of costs to be paid and enforce this if it was not paid. In reality, I would expect a court to have to assess a bill in the absence of an agreement.

Reddit:
Your solicitor may be correct in your situation but different rules apply to different cases and any agreement between the parties overrides thoses rules. Typically, the Respondent will pay costs in fault-based divorces (unreasonable behaviour, adultery and desertion), the Petitioner''s costs tend to be split 50:50 in 2 years separation by consent and the Petitioner cannot obtain a costs order in 5 years separation cases.

Charles

Hi Charles,

That is how I understood the meaning of the order as well. I thought the bill of costs drawn up my sols reasonable and fair. I was also under the impression that these would be paid without question.

Had my sol issued a bill in excess of £2k I could warrant the query. As I see it, this is a genuine cost incurred for reasons stated in my inital post. The amount is not some made up figure, but factually correct information.

As I see it, I have 2 options open to me:

1. Offer £1,200.00 and hope it is agreed.

2. Persue payment in full, via the courts, have the bill assessed and if deemed reasonable ask for costs incurred to be applied on top.

I will choose option 1 as a starting point and if costs are still refused will take option 2. At least I can prove to the judge that I have tried to negotiate out of court in the first instance.

Many thanks for your replies as they have really helped me to clearly see the way forward... very much appreciated.

Limit