A solicitor advocate’s failed GDPR claim against a costs judge and The Transcription Agency has seen him ordered to pay a total of over £500,000 in costs.
Robin Makin - most famous for representing serial killer Ian Brady, the Moors murderer - launched proceedings in 2021 against The Transcription Agency and Master Jennifer James, a costs judge, under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR, seeking personal data the defendants held about him. The defendants relied on the judicial exemption and Makin’s claim was dismissed.
In Makin v The Transcription Agency LLP & Anor, the solicitor, of Liverpool Legal, was ordered to pay the costs of each defendant on the indemnity basis, in part because of his ‘grave attempt to besmirch’ the reputation of Costs Judge James.
Makin was ordered to pay James £153,439.31 in costs for the case, but in December was ordered to pay a further £88,144.74 for the costs of a detailed assessment of that bill, plus interest of £16,200, a newly released court document seen by the Gazette shows.
The detailed assessment took place at Blackpool County Court, where both parties were represented by both silks and juniors, with Fiona Horlick KC leading for Makin and Daniel Saoul KC for James.
Paul Joseph, representing James at a hearing in December, said Makin’s stance had been the costs judge was not entitled to any costs in the case, raising a number of complex issues about her status, such as ‘essentially, what the Crown is’, which required specialist counsel.
Makin had previously been ordered to pay The Transcription Agency’s costs bill assessed in the sum of £177,938.46, plus the costs of a detailed assessment of that bill on the indemnity basis in the sum of £46,541.40, after a deputy costs judge at the Senior Courts Cost Office in London said he had challenged almost every cost on the bill containing almost 1,400 items.
In total Makin was ordered to pay The Transcription Agency £249,776.50 and was ordered to pay James £257,784.05, bringing the total cost payable to the successful defendants in the litigation to £507,560.55.
