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Ian, have you read Merrix? It says that being under budget is as good a reason to depart as being over budget. So in your scenario, the PP just needs to argue that the costs claimed are under budget therefore the court has good reason to depart from the budget. Then at DA the assessment will look at the incurred costs.

In your scenario, the budget itself is a waste of time but the associated costs would fall on whichever party failed to consider settlement until the DQ/CMC stage.

Effectively this changes nothing.