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What is stark staring bonkers is that a Judge hearing a costs management conference has no power to interfere with incurred costs which means that advocates who come before me are making all sorts of provisos when dealing with the other side's budget, such as that the hourly rates aren't agreed. As a result, there is now a full blown detailed assessment of the incurred costs but so long as the later costs are within the budget, they aren't to be touched unless there is good reason.

This is going to make CCMC's longer and more difficult and heaven knows, they are difficult enough already. The big difficulty with costs budgets is that they are speculative and may involve a certain amount of crystal ball gazing. At least with a detailed assessment the work has been done.