This practice note looks at assessments of costs in litigation when there is a CFA. It applies to CFAs entered into on or after 1 April 2013, with a few exceptions (the excepted cases). It does not cover the situation where disputes are settled without litigation or without costs being assessed. In those situations, the parties are free to agree the amounts of costs to be paid.

Note that: On 1 April 2013, the majority of the Jackson/civil litigation reforms came into force. As a result of these changes, where a CFA is entered into on or after 1 April 2013, any success fee under that CFA will no longer be recoverable from the other side, save in the excepted cases. This has a significant impact on costs assessments.

For information on costs assessments where the CFA was entered into before 1 April 2013 and in relation to the excepted cases, see Practice note, Conditional fee agreements entered into before 1 April 2013 and in the excepted cases: costs assessments.