Costs

Order for costs - costs orders against Legal Services Commission in favour of publicly funded litigantsR (Gunn) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: R (Kelly) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: R (Khan) (Zahid) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA (Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers MR, Pill and Keene LJJ): 14 June 2001In all three cases, applications for permission to apply for judicial review to quash orders of the Secretary of State for the Home Department were refused, applications were then made to the Court of Appeal and refused.

Costs orders were made against the applicants to be paid by the Legal Services Commission.The commission applied to the Court of Appeal requesting consideration of the lawfulness of costs orders made against the commission under section 11 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 in favour of publicly funded parties where litigants funded by the commission had applied for judicial review.Jeremy Morgan (instructed by the solicitor to the Legal Services Commission) for the Legal Services Commission.

Jonathan Swift (instructed by the Treasury solicitor) for the secretary of state.Held, granting the applications, that the regulatory scheme governing the Legal Services Commission, which replaced the Legal Aid Board on 1 April 2000, expressly assigned the decision of whether to make a costs order against the commission to the costs judge or district judge; that the current practice of the county court, High Court and Court of Appeal of the trial court deciding whether it was just and equitable to make a costs order against the commission was to be discontinued; and that there remained jurisdiction to make an order against the commission in favour of a public body, including a government department.

(WLR)