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Cost budgeting = more expensive litigation.
Why? Because even on multi-track PI cases, most directions hearings didn't take place because the parties had agreed and even when they did, they tended to take far less time than the 30 minutes allotted.
Now we have a minimum 90 minute hearing (often adjourned because that isn't long enough) to go through a detailed assessment process before the event - when again the vast majority of PI cases would never have been subjected to detailed assessment because the parties know the parameters and would agree terms.
So far, touch wood, I have only had one costs budget reduced to a level where it was uneconomic for me to continue to act and that was the first one.