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Claimant solicitors requested cost recovery totalling £2422.10, while insurers for the defendant paid expenses totalling £1907.72.

The insurers also issued a challenge over the amount of medical expert and agency fees and requested clarification prior to paying what they contended was a proper amount. The claimant issued proceedings for the balance of the costs of £514.38.

The court ruled that the claimant was entitled to costs and disbursements, so long as they were calculated by the Civil Procedure Rules, part 45(II), which covers procedures and rules governing traffic accidents and associated fixed recoverable costs.

Disputed were disbursements related to an invoice from a medical agency for £29.38, a GP note release charge of £150 and an invoice for £435, the cost of a medical expert's report.

The ruling stated that while there was no principle that precluded the fees of a medical agency being recoverable between parties, one party had to demonstrate that the charges did not exceed the "reasonable and proportionate" costs for the work had the solicitors completed it. The result was that the agreement between the agency and expert for a fee of £285 in respect of the expert's fee, the balance of the £435 being for work done by the agent in organising the expert's report. This was all work that the solicitor could have accomplished with ease.

It was acknowledged that there existed an obvious risk that solicitors would have sought to circumvent the restrictions on their profit costs by distributing matters that would normally be considered as solicitors' work to other venues to make it appear that the fees were actually an disbursement.

It was determined that all doubts as to reasonableness must be rectified in favour of the paying party. As a result, the judge allowed recovery only for the GP note release charge of £50 and expert's fee of £285.

Some opinions view this as a victory for the insurers in that the district judge decided to restrict the predictable costs in order so that the claimant solicitors are prohibited from benefiting from delegating work the they could easily do within the agreed upon and predictable fee structure.