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You may find this hard to believe but there was a time when the losing defendant paid all the costs. In those far off days solicitors had to actually justify their costs and anything claimed which was not strictly party and party was disallowed against the loser but might be allowed against the client. It might be that some costs were payable by the client but not always.
Solicitors then realised that if they added a percentage the taxing master would still disallow it so they increased bills to include that part.
The powers that be then realised that as bills were routinely reduced by a percentage the whole system could be modified so detailed bills were changed to block charges.
Over time it became the practice to routinely disallow part of the costs irrespective of whether or not they were justified, hence the present situation where the winning claimant always has to pay part of the costs.
The fault lies in the system of not allowing all the winning party's costs. Bring back the old system and pay the winning party his/her reasonable costs and abolish success fees but still making the client pay any costs which are not strictly party and party.

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