Matthew has always taken an interest in issues of costs arising from personal injury litigation, and advises on issues including qualified one-way costs shifting, the application of Part 36 settlement offers (and the effect of non-Part 36 offers), recovery of inquest costs in a civil claim and suchlike.
Matthew’s view is that getting a good result on the costs of litigation is usually as important as getting a good result in the litigation itself.
He deals with assessments of costs. Whilst he prefers disputes of law and principle in relation to costs, his A-levels in maths and further maths have never left him and he finds the number-crunching exercises straightforward. He regularly undertakes costs budgeting hearings and usually provides the outcome in a revised excel spreadsheet (precedent-H) format to minimise the work required from an instructing solicitor after such hearing.
