Revolutionising the costs process: an experiment by the Hon Justice Bradley

30 Aug 2024

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Once upon a time, courts expected the parties to make all their submissions about costs and orders at the trial or hearing. Costs would be dealt with on the spot in an oral decision or in the reserved judgment. There was no expectation of a second hearing.

The trend in the last 20 or so years has been for parties to ask for time to consider the court’s reasons and take instructions before making any submissions about costs. The expectation now is that there will be further written submissions and that about a month later there may be a second hearing on costs alone.

"So, the parties are incurring more costs fighting about costs,” despairs one innovative judge who is about to commence an experiment in his court to change this process.

Justice Thomas Bradley, appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland in 2018 will soon trial a novel approach in his court. He will decide costs within the one hearing.

“The simplest way to start is in a supervised list with the usual trial preparation directions. In this form it would be a suggestion to the parties and the supervising judge. The suggested direction could be that a party must give written notice to the court and to each other party if the party intends to contend for an order other than the usual order that costs follow the event. The notice must be given before the trial or hearing commences. If no party gives notice, then no party may make submissions for a different costs order without leave of the court, and the court may proceed on the basis that all the parties are agreed that costs should follow the event.”

To read the full article on Thomson Reuters' Legal Insight please click here.

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Justice Bradley is co-author of Queensland Civil Practice that offers a detailed guide to court practice and procedure in Queensland under the regime of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules. It has recently undergone a major overhaul and review to simplify the structure and improve ease of navigation through the service. The restructure has concentrated on the provision of value-added material such as current commentary and annotated pertinent legislation.

The distinguished author team is led by the General Editors Dr Bridget Cullen and Matthew Williams with leading practitioners and academics, including Justice Thomas Bradley, Prof Bernard Cairns, Dr John Forbes, William Isdale, Jennifer Sheean and Jessica Lambert.

Queensland Civil Practice falls within the Court Practice & Procedure Practice Area on Westlaw that has many services designed to complement each other to provide the breadth of coverage of a single compendium but with the in-depth analysis that specific focus areas will allow. In addition, the Alert and the report series will also enable practitioners to keep up to date with pertinent caselaw. To subscribe to the Court Practice & Procedure Practice Area on Westlaw, contact Thomson Reuters.

Revolutionising the costs process: an experiment by the Hon Justice Bradley

Once upon a time, courts expected the parties to make all their submissions about costs and orders at the trial or hearing. Costs would be dealt with on the spot in an oral decision or in the reserved judgment. There was no expectation of a second hearing.

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