The previous Guidance Notes on Precedent H expressly stated that “subsequent CMCs” were not be included within the CMC phase.
The updated Guidance Notes on Precedent H removes this exclusion and now provides that the CMC phase of Precedent H should include:
“Any further CMC that is built into the proposed directions order”
This still leaves open the question of how to cater within the costs budget for possible future case management conferences that are not built into the proposed directions order. The most obvious place to include these would be as a contingent cost. The danger of failing to include them there is that, in the event a subsequent CMC is ordered, a party would then face the dilemma of deciding whether to:
- Revise the budget under PD3E para.7.6 and try to persuade the court that the further CMC represented a “significant development” or
- Wait until the conclusion of the case and, if the successful party, seek to argue on detailed assessment that the ordering of the further CMC represented a “good reason” to depart from the budget under CPR 3.18.
Costs budgets and subsequent CMCs