Court costs

Hello, can anyone clarify what would be regarded as litigation misconduct throughout the financial proceedings. Currently awaiting FDR.



Thanks

Actions that deliberately lengthen proceedings and drive costs upwards and/or actions by a party that would interfere with the court process e.g. lying, deliberately misleading the court or failure to abide by court orders.

Charles

Thats a good question and an interesting answer.

I am currently waiting to hear from the Judge in relation to Directions after submitting a D11 as my stbx has failed to abide by the Court Order in a number of ways. I would also say she is doing the other things Charles has said as well.

Should I go to the Court and add litigation misconduct to the D11?

''Litigation misconduct'' is a catch-all term. You cannot really use it without particularising your complaint. It would be like asking a builder to quote you for "some building" without giving any further details.

Litigation misconduct, once proven, leads to adverse costs orders. It is better to seek a costs order based on the behaviour of the other side e.g. "I seek a penal notice to be attached to the order dated X and an order for the costs of and incidental to this application". This infers litigation conduct whilst also giving details of that conduct.

That all being said, in family proceedings, with the exception of divorce, injunction and MPS applications, the rule of the court is to make no costs order. There is a high bar to cross to convince the court to go against this rule.

Charles