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When costs budgeting first came in against the background of QOCS, we seriously considered whether there was actually any point in ever filing budgets when instructed on behalf of insurer clients on PI matters. Over a notional book of 100 cases the costs recovered on the occasional case where defence costs turn out to be enforceable against the other side would never have exceeded the inherent costs to our client of our actually filing all those budgets.

Our advice could have been "don't ever bother with them and you'll save money overall".

The only thing that tipped the scale was the fact that by not filing a budget we would have adversely impacted upon the importance placed upon P36 offers made to an opponent who knew that no costs budget had been filed. For defendants, by and large, they are a complete waste of money.