Post Office Costs Judgment

Another interesting judgment from the Post Office Litigation, # 5 in fact. This time on when costs should be awarded in a group action - as you go along and as you determine each set of common issues, or do you save up the decision until the end? On this occasion Fraser J thought the right thing to do was to determine who should pay immediately, and not to reserve costs to the bitter end:

 In my judgment, it would not be consistent with the principles included in CPR Part 44, CPR Part 46.6, or even the overriding objective in CPR Part 1.1 itself, to reserve the costs of the Common Issues. CPR Part 1.1(2)(a) requires the court, in order to deal with a case justly and at proportionate cost, to ensure that the parties are on an equal footing. The claimants would not be on an equal footing with the Post Office, a publicly funded body, if I reserved the costs of the Common Issues trial until the very end of the litigation.