The Civil Procedure Rules 1998

[F1 Costs management orders E+W

3.15.— (1) In addition to exercising its other powers, the court may manage the costs to be incurred [F2 (the budgeted costs)] by any party in any proceedings.

(2) The court may at any time make a “costs management order”. [F3 Where costs budgets have been filed and exchanged the court will make a costs management order unless it is satisfied that the litigation can be conducted justly and at proportionate cost in accordance with the overriding objective without such an order being made. By a costs management order the court will—]

(a) record the extent to which the [F4 budgeted costs] are agreed between the parties;

(b) in respect of [F5 the budgeted costs] which are not agreed, record the court’s approval after making appropriate revisions;

[F6 (c) record the extent (if any) to which incurred costs are agreed]

(3) If a costs management order has been made, the court will thereafter control the parties’ budgets in respect of recoverable costs.

[F7 (4) Whether or not the court makes a costs management order, it may record on the face of any case management order any comments it has about the incurred costs which are to be taken into account in any subsequent assessment proceedings.]

[F8 (5) Save in exceptional circumstances—

(a) the recoverable costs of initially completing Precedent H (the form to be used for a costs budget) shall not exceed the higher of—

(i) £1,000; or

(ii) 1% of the total of the incurred costs (as agreed or allowed on assessment) and the budgeted costs (agreed or approved); and

(b) all other recoverable costs of the budgeting and costs management process shall not exceed 2% of the total of the incurred costs (as agreed or allowed on assessment) and the budgeted (agreed or approved) costs.

(Precedent H is annexed to Practice Direction [F9 3D].)

(6) The court may set a timetable or give other directions for future reviews of budgets.

(7) After a party’s budgeted costs have been approved or agreed, the party must re-file and re-serve the budget—

(a) in the form approved or agreed with re-cast figures; and

(b) annexed to the order approving the budgeted costs or recording the parties’ agreement.

(8) A costs management order concerns the totals allowed for each phase of the budget, and while the underlying detail in the budget for each phase used by the party to calculate the totals claimed is provided for reference purposes to assist the court in fixing a budget, it is not the role of the court in the costs management hearing to fix or approve the hourly rates claimed in the budget.]]

Textual Amendments

F1 Pt. 3 Sections 2, 3 inserted (1.4.2013) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2013 (S.I. 2013/262), rules 2, 5(h) (with rule 22)

F2 Words in rule 3.15(1) inserted (6.4.2017) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2017 (S.I. 2017/95), rules 2, 5(10)(a)

F3 Words in rule 3.15(2) substituted (22.4.2014) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 4) Rules 2014 (S.I. 2014/867), rules 1, 5 (with rule 25)

F4 Words in rule 3.15(2)(a) substituted (6.4.2017) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2017 (S.I. 2017/95), rules 2, 5(10)(b)(i)

F5 Words in rule 3.15(2)(b) substituted (6.4.2017) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2017 (S.I. 2017/95), rules 2, 5(10)(b)(ii)

F6 Rule 3.15(2)(c) inserted (6.4.2017) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2017 (S.I. 2017/95), rules 2, 5(10)(b)(iii)

F7 Rule 3.15(4) inserted (6.4.2017) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2017 (S.I. 2017/95), rules 2, 5(10)(c)

F8 Rules 3.15(5)-(8) inserted (1.10.2020) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 3) Rules 2020 (S.I. 2020/747), rules 1(1), 4(3)

F9 Word in rule 3.15 substituted (1.10.2022) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2022 (S.I. 2022/783), rules 1(1), 4(5)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 Rules 3.12-3.18 applied (with modifications) (1.7.2015) by S.I. 2007/1744, rule 160 (as substituted by The Court of Protection (Amendment) Rules 2015 (S.I. 2015/548), rules 1(2)(b), 52)