Tag Archives: wasted costs

Adoption as orthodoxy

Posted on January 29, 2020 by suesspiciousminds

I note that adoption is once again becoming a political football, with Government spokespersons holding it up to be the gold standard for children. We have been here before, and no doubt we will be here again.

This judgment from a Circuit Judge is therefore both timely and sadly timeless. None of what is said within it is newly binding (save that the Judge carefully and accurately records the statutory and regulatory sources, and the caselaw from which her analysis derives, and that some of the matters within it are long-standing regulations which have not been forensically inspected by a Court before) but I think all of what it contains is powerful and an important reminder of the stakes in which we are dealing when the Court is asked to make decisions about children’s futures.

It is also a case involving a decision about wasted costs in a highly flawed Placement Order application, and in which counsel who tried to be clever about the word ‘reprehensible’ received something of a lesson.

The case was heard by Her Honour Judge Lazarus (and my fingers in typing almost wrote ‘as she then was’ as though I had slipped forward in time a few years)

A (A Child : Flawed Placement Application) [2020] EWFC B2 (10 January 2020)

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/OJ/2020/B2.html

The case involved a a girl of 4, whose parents had accepted that the threshold criteria were crossed and that they could not care for her. The only realistic options before the Court were a plan of adoption or a plan of long term fostering. The Local Authority sought a Placement Order and thus a plan of adoption.

An important issue in this case was how large an immediate and extended family this child had, and the careful need to consider the impact on the child of maintaining or severing relationships with that family.

Another key element of that background, as already mentioned, is the very large family-centred tight-knit active family group that she belongs to. This already holds out the prospect of meaningful relationships with at least 29 individuals in this country in her immediate family (parents, siblings, grandparents, nephews and nieces) let alone the further dozens in the next ranks of her extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins), many of whom are close in age to A. Drifting too far from being able to create and maintain those relationships, and from some familiarity with their traditions, would be highly detrimental to A and the prospects of a future richly populated with loving relatives and their shared heritage. Supporting these aspects, and acknowledging the challenges given her characteristics, is very important to A’s long-term welfare.

The Judge made it clear that she was not critical of the Local Authority for considering an option of adoption

To be clear, there is no criticism of the making of an application for a placement order itself. There would have been scope for this complex and finely balanced argument to be made properly to the court, and for the court to consider all the aspects of the issues applicable to such a serious step in order to determine the appropriate outcome

However, despite it being identified once the LA final evidence was filed that it was lacking in the necessary carefully balanced analysis and argument, and the Local Authority being given further opportunities to remedy that by addressing clearly identified missing issues in addendum evidence, the requisite quality of evidence never emerged. The LA had three such opportunities, including on the first day of the hearing, and matters ended up unravelling completely during the social work evidence.

However, what analysis there was emerged as incomplete, partial, unsupported by sufficient evidence or reasoning. ‘Permanence’ was lauded above all else, with little rationale or substantiation or research to underpin that claim and the assumptions and assertions made.

What analyses there were hardly touched upon the disadvantages to A of adoption and effective severance from her birth family, or the problems posed by her diagnoses in terms of any attempts to mitigate those losses.

Negative observations in relation to the family were over-emphasised based on the slightest of evidence, and positive issues for which there was ample and good evidence were hardly mentioned if at all. Whole factors that would not sit easily with the plan for adoption were almost completely ignored. It was a skewed and highly partial approach.

Ultimately, such an approach not only undermines the local authority’s own case for adoption because the good and substantial evidence and analysis required by the case law is simply absent, but it does not serve the child well nor assist the court.

I entirely accept that there are, sadly, many cases where the drastic and life-changing severance of legal and other forms of relationship with birth families are justified. Often it is where the incapability of family members to meet a child’s needs or the risks of significant harm are very great, and where the benefits to the child of ongoing relationships with birth family members are scanty, being of poor quality, negative impact or largely non-existent in terms of any obvious positives or likely continuation.

Here, the contrast with such situations was very great, with a very large loving connected family group holding positive respectful family values, celebrating a distinct culture and heritage, highly co-operative, admitting their area of parenting failure but otherwise forming a wide group of highly functional happy secure close adult and child family members, and offering consistent positive committed loving relationships to A, and in particular with siblings, nephews, nieces and cousins who are close to A’s age.

63. This required careful, nuanced, thoughtful and balanced analysis. Instead, listening to the social worker’s oral evidence was a painful experience. Almost none of those benefits and contrasts were touched on at all. No research was referred to in her documents or oral evidence. It was difficult to get her to focus on A’s needs and characteristics, as opposed to reciting generalised assertions about adoption. It was clear that she initially thought she had fully reviewed A’s welfare interests, even though her document was largely a cut-and-paste copy of the initial CPR with a few further paragraphs added and a slightly expanded tabular discussion of various pros and cons.

The process of cross-examination increasingly revealed glaring gaps and distorted arguments. It was telling that, despite the local authority claiming that it grasped that this was a complex and unusual case and that all the relevant issues had been considered, in fact very few of the relevant complexities were set out or analysed in any document and not even in this social worker’s re-amended document. It was further telling that, when the possibility of a contact order that would help to support A’s family relationships and her exposure to her culture and heritage was raised with the social worker, her first reaction was not to consider it in terms of A’s needs and characteristics but to protest that this would narrow the pool of prospective adopters. A prime example of the tail wagging the dog.

Overall, the local authority’s evidence was an effective demonstration of confirmation bias. The virtues of the permanence and security of a ‘forever family’, and which in abstract principle I do not doubt, nonetheless were sketchily asserted and additionally appeared to blind the social workers to the need to address those specific aspects of A’s needs and characteristics that did not fit with that proposal, and prevented any real analysis of permanent estrangement from her birth family.

In particular, there was no evaluation of how that would work in combination with her likely cognitive difficulties, which would undoubtedly make it far harder if not impossible for her to benefit from sparse or indirect contact, or from using indirect resources such as the internet, language lessons or photographs to keep her in touch with her heritage and her family’s native languages and practices. There was no consideration whatsoever that there would be a high likelihood of adoption realistically resulting in an effectively drastic end to A’s ability to grasp aspects of her heritage, experience the warmth and breadth of her birth family, speak and understand some words of her parents’ native languages, feel and benefit from the sense of belonging to this large loving family with rich and coherent traditions – even if she could not live with them.

The local authority’s approach was starkly epitomised in the following quotation and sole rationale in the initial ADM report: ‘given A’s age the only permanency option viable for A is adoption’. This assertion was made without any supporting analysis, let alone consideration of what other options might exist and how any option does or does not meet A’s needs and welfare interests.

This flawed approach begs so many questions of this local authority. How is it that adoption appears to have become a kind of orthodoxy that requires inconvenient matters to be ignored and others to be twisted into its support? Is there an endemic automatic approach to a younger child’s age which results in a simplistic tick-box response instead of a careful analysis of her particular welfare interests? What sort of positive qualities would a birth family need to offer to be able to dislodge this approach to adoption and trigger a more balanced analysis and a preparedness to consider and address the full range of options? How has this local authority not followed the clear guidance of well-known law, and so failed to provide the evidence with which to ask the court to properly determine such a drastic and serious intervention in the life of this child?

Ultimately, even with the further opportunities that the local authority had following the adjournment in November plus the further enhancement of the social worker’s written efforts at the outset of this hearing, the exposure of these failings led the local authority to perceive that it had again manifestly failed to meet its obligations and thus it withdrew its second placement application at this adjourned final hearing. The necessary evidence and reasoning that would have permitted this court to carry out the difficult balancing exercise had simply not been properly provided.

These observations, and the local authority’s failure to meet these requirements of well-known law, become particularly pertinent given the local authority’s fundamentally flawed application for a placement order that led to the first final hearing being adjourned.

It is clear from what is said that both the original Child Permanence Report and the amended later versions were significantly flawed. The Judge summarises the statutory guidance and reminds us of the purpose of the Child Permanence Report – this is the document that fundamentally informs the Agency Decision Maker (the senior manager at a Local Authority, usually Assistant Director or Director level) as to the relevant information that leads that Agency Decision Maker (ADM) whether or not to make a decision that adoption should be the Local Authority plan. (An individual social worker cannot decide that adoption is the plan – they can recommend it to the ADM, but it is the ADM who decides). Therefore, the information in the Child Permanence Report (CPR) must be accurate, it must be fair, it must be balanced.

The Statutory Guidance on Adoption provides that information must be accurate and distinguish fact from opinion:

1.17. Reports should be legible, clearly expressed and non-stigmatising. The information should be accurate and based on evidence that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third party information. The information should be checked to ensure that it is accurate and up to date before it is submitted to the adoption panel.

The guidance goes on to explain why the accuracy of the CPR is so important:

2.64. The accuracy of the CPR is essential, since it will not only form the basis on which decisions are made about whether the child should be placed for adoption but will also assist the agency in matching the child with an appropriate prospective adopter, and will be the source of the information about the child on which the prospective adopter will rely. In due course the child, on reaching adulthood, will be able to request a copy of the CPR under the AIR and may have to rely on this document as the principal source of information about their pre-adoption history.

The Court of Appeal has emphasised the legal requirement for the CPR to contain an analysis of all relevant placement options, including the reasons why adoption is the preferred plan. In Re B (care proceedings: proportionality evaluation) [2014] EWCA Civ 565, [2015] 1 FLR 884, concerning a successful appeal against a placement order, Ryder LJ observed that the CPR “ought to be one of the materials in which a full comparative analysis and balance of the realistic options is demonstrated … That was necessary not just for the court’s purposes but also for the local authority’s (adoption) agency decision maker whose decision is a pre-requisite to a placement application being made.”

In Re S-F (a child) [2017] EWCA Civ 964 the Court of Appeal highlighted the need for reasoning to be specifically related to the child concerned:

The proportionality of interference in family life that an adoption represents must be justified by evidence not assumptions that read as stereotypical slogans. A conclusion that adoption is better for the child than long term fostering may well be correct but an assumption as to that conclusion is not evidence even if described by the legend as something that concerns identity, permanence, security and stability.

In order to have weight, the proposition that adoption is in the best interests of the child concerned throughout his life and is preferable to long term fostering should be supported by a social work opinion derived from a welfare analysis relating to the child. If appropriate, the conclusions of empirically validated research material can be relied upon in support of the welfare analysis, for example: research into the feasibility and success of different types of long term placements by reference to the age, background, social or medical characteristics. As this court has repeatedly remarked, the citation of other cases to identify the benefits of adoption as against long term fostering is no substitute for evidence and advice to the court on the facts of the particular case.’

There are regulations – The Restriction on the Preparation of Adoption Reports Regulations 2005 AND Adoption Statutory Guidance designed to ensure that this is the case. Pivotal amongst these is that the author of the Child Permanence Report must be qualified to write one, and must certify in the report whether they are so qualified, or whether their manager who is so qualified has supervised them in the writing of it. The qualification is three years of child social work, including direct experience of adoption work. (In short, a social worker who is in the process of learning or has no direct experience of adoption work can only write the CPR if their manager (who HAS such experience) supervises them in the writing process. And by implication, as the manager has to sign off on the report that the manager is signing to say that the report does all it should.

The guidance also sets out the expectations of the role of the supervisor:

1.15. For those individuals who are being supervised, their work should be supervised in accordance with their particular skills, experience and development needs. It is not necessary for the supervised social worker to be under the direct line management of the supervising social worker.

1.16. Where reports are being prepared by social work students, independent social workers or social workers who do not have the necessary experience, the draft report should be considered and discussed during supervision and signed off by a social worker with the necessary experience before the report is submitted to the adoption panel, another agency, or the court.

1.18. The person who prepares the report should sign and date it and indicate how they meet the requirements of the AAR. Where the person has been working under the supervision of a suitably qualified social worker, that social worker should sign the report as well, indicating the capacity they are working in and how they meet the requirements of the AAR.

In this case, the social worker was not suitably qualified, but instead of checking the box to say that she was not and having her manager sign to certify that it had been prepared under supervision simply checked the box saying that she was qualified, which she was not.

Page 3 of the CPR specifically asks the author to confirm that they are suitably qualified under the Regulations to prepare this report. There is a numbered footnote next to that question, suggesting that further information on that point was available to the author while completing the document. The social worker’s response was “YES”. The social worker has since explained that claiming that she was suitably qualified was simply an administrative error, an oversight. She should have marked NO, as she does not have the requisite experience under the Regulations.

When the local authority was asked at court on the first day of the November hearing whether the social worker was in fact appropriately qualified and to provide details of her direct adoption experience the local authority’s response was that she does not have the requisite experience but “was supervised”.

The space provided for details of the supervisor to be given has been left blank, which boxes also appear on page 3. It has been suggested that this is because the form uses a drop-down box format and that in clicking on YES the subsequent boxes did not then appear in order to be completed.

However, I note that both the social worker and her team manager provided their signatures in the relevant boxes on page 3. They would both have had the opportunity and should have seen on the same page that they were signing, that the relevant boxes in relation to the Name and Signature of the supervisor were blank, and that the social worker had wrongly confirmed that she was a qualified person under the Regulations.

I also note that in his statement the Director of Children’s Services referred to two individuals said to have supervised the social worker to the satisfaction of the relevant Regulations: her service manager and her assistant team manager. He claims that the supervision involved: ‘initial planning… including identifying who needed to be seen and interviewed, reviews of previously completed CPRs to inform the process of completion of the index CPR, and discussions about the conclusions of the same.’

There are no details given of the capacity of either of these two individuals to fall within the relevant supervisor category, or of which of them carried out what supervisory tasks and exactly how that satisfied the regulations. There are no notes or records provided of supervision sessions. Tellingly, there is no assertion in his statement that either of them read the report or considered its contents beyond ‘discussions about the conclusions’. Clearly, neither of them signed the CPR, even though, if supervision were being adequately conducted, they would have expected this to be asked of them.

It is clearly possible that the local authority may have committed a criminal offence under section 94 Adoption and Children Act 2002 and the Preparation of Adoption Reports Regulations 2005, but I cannot conclude whether that is the case or not. I note the Director’s refutation of this accusation. This is not the tribunal in which a summary offence is tried. I have not been provided with sufficient information to assist with any safe conclusion either way, nor would it be proportionate in the circumstances of this case to conduct an examination of all the background facts and the detailed nature of the supervision said to have been provided.

At the very least, this ‘oversight’ was therefore missed by four people: the social worker, her team manager, her assistant team manager and her service manager. I am driven to suspect, but cannot properly put it higher than suspicion, that this oversight may possibly have been a consequence of ignorance of the requirements, the Regulations and of this offence.

Additionally and significantly, adequate supervision should have identified the numerous deficiencies in content and analysis that are now admitted by the local authority.

It also remains unclear who in the local authority holds the position of agency advisor as the individual with overall responsibility for quality assurance of the CPR, and whether this document was ever seen by this individual. This again begs the question as to what checking systems are in place, and how such an inadequate report, written by a social worker who did not have the experience required by law to write such a report, was permitted to be submitted to the ADM.

The CPR, as well as missing significant information and a balanced analysis, contained within it assertions as though they were fact, when the LA knew that the parents disputed those assertions and were not asking the Court to make findings. That sounds complex, so let’s unpack it

If there’s an allegation in proceedings that daddy hit Jack with a stick, then those allegations become a fact if :-

(a)Daddy admits it

(b)Daddy is convicted of it

(c)The Local Authority invite the Court to find as a fact that it happened and the Court, having tested the evidence does so.

In the absence of (a) or (b), if the Local Authority want to be accurate in the CPR they say “There is an allegation, yet to be proven, that the father hit Jack with a stick, the father denies it saying ___________, the evidence that the LA rely on that it happened is ___________ and the Court will be asked to find this as a fact”OR “There was an allegation made on _____ about physical mistreatment, this is denied and the Local Authority accept that there is not sufficient evidence for the Court to be asked to make a finding”

To simplify even further – this is the LA having their cake and eating it. Relying on the allegation to persuade an ADM that adoption is the plan, without going to the effort of proving it. This is WRONG.

In addition to the above acknowledgements, it is also the case that the CPR contains much information presented as fact (for example pages 18-19) even though the local authority should have been aware it was disputed by the parents and it was not pursuing findings in respect of the disputed issues. This is particularly concerning given that paragraph 2.64 of the Guidance emphasises the need for accuracy, and that a CPR is often an important and sometimes sole source of information for a prospective adopter and for the child (see 2.64 set out at paragraph 82 above).

It is astonishing really that this needs saying, but it clearly does. As a Local Authority, if you are putting a disputed allegation onto the balancing scales to make decisions, then you need to seek to PROVE it. If you have decided you don’t think you can prove it, or that it isn’t proportionate to ask the Court to do so, then you DON’T GET TO PUT the allegation on the scales. Put up or shut up.

The ADM doesn’t escape condemnation

AGENCY DECISION MAKER’S DECISION –

Given the manifest failures to comply properly with the Act and the Regulations and applicable guidance and case law in relation to the CPR, it was clearly not possible for the initial ADM to have made a valid and lawful decision based upon that material (Re B (Placement Order) [2008] supra, quoted in paragraph 78 above).

It is also plain that the ADM in any event in her own right failed to comply with the relevant law and guidance in the decision dated 12 September 2019. The decision is set out in nine paragraphs which summarise the background history and then concludes with a single sentence as the only analysis or rationale for the ADM’s decision: “However, given A’s age the only permanency option viable for A is adoption”.

This is shockingly poor and in breach of the relevant law and guidance. In particular:

– The ADM failed to consider whether the social worker was permitted to prepare the report under The Restriction on the Preparation of Adoption Reports Regulations 2005.

– The ADM failed to identify any arguments for or against adoption or long-term foster care, save for A’s age, and failed to give any reason for the decision, save for the child’s age.

– The ADM’s sole reason appears to amount to an orthodoxy or set policy based on age alone and showed the local authority had failed even to consider long-term foster care as an option at all.

– The ADM failed to consider any of the factors in the welfare checklist save for A’s age. This excluded any consideration of A’s background and identity, the impact of her needs and developmental issues, her relationships with her relatives (not only her parents but siblings and wider family), and the value of those relationships continuing.

The Director of Children’s Services claims in his statement that the ADM had, in fact, taken the full welfare checklist into account, but had simply failed to record that exercise. He also accepts that the key arguments for and against adoption were not articulated in the report, and concedes that these failures to meet requirements resulted in a flawed placement application. In my judgment, his concessions do not go far enough and do not even reflect the local authority’s own guidance that was in existence at the time of the decision.

Nor does the Local Authority legal department

It is the local authority’s legal team who will have taken the relevant steps to issue the placement application. In doing so, the lawyer handling this case should have read the relevant documents underpinning the proposed application. This should have immediately caused the lawyer to flag concerns relating to the adequacy of the CPR and the ADM decision, and whether the ADM could have made a lawful decision on the basis of the CPR.

This should have led to the matter being referred, if it had not been referred already, to the agency advisor for review of the documents in question.

It also should have led the lawyer to refer the matter back to the social work team, service manager or other senior member of Children’s Services in order to rectify the situation.

The issue of a placement application should not become a rubber-stamping exercise, but a rigorous examination of whether the legal requirements for such a serious application have been met

I would completely agree with this. It might to implement it properly, need an adjustment of Court timetables. A Placement Order application is a huge piece of work, and because generally the social work evidence comes in right against the deadline if not already late, a Local Authority lawyer is working frantically to get the application issued as soon as possible, so that other parties can respond and the court timetable does not get derailed. We need to make time to do what is such a critical job properly, even if that means having to seek to vary the Court timetable to give it the time it needs. Child Permanence Reports are dense documents, the application form for Placement Orders is, as any Local Authority lawyer will tell you, the absolute WORST form to fill in, you’re doing it at the same time as checking all of the final evidence and care plans. It takes more time to do right than we are able to give it. And what normally has to give there is that the task is delivered in the time you’ve got, not the time you need.

(None of this is intended to be excuses, it is context. Similar things are true at every stage of this flawed process – everyone is working to the time they’ve got, rather than the time they need. Sometimes we need to stand up and say ‘we need more time please Judge, because…’ and let the Judge decide)

As a result of the flaws in this case, the Court considered whether to make a wasted costs order (i.e that the Council should pay for everyone else’s legal costs)

They were ordered to pay the costs of one day of the Court hearing

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

Appropriately, the local authority has recognised that its actions place it at risk for the costs of at least part of the three days of the November hearing. The Respondents’ costs are all met by the Legal Aid Agency, and I have taken into account their respective similar positions in defending the funds of that agency and requesting that a costs order is made against the local authority for the three days.

It was suggested on behalf of the local authority that these issues should have been drawn to the local authority’s attention by others at the Issue Resolution Hearing in late September. I reject that submission. None of these flaws should have been permitted to have tainted the documents and decisions of the local authority in the first place, none of the issues are novel but are well-known aspects of statute, case law and guidance. These were the standard responsibilities of the local authority, and not of the other parties nor the court.

137. Counsel also, ingeniously but unsuccessfully, attempted to suggest that the court should consider that the actions of the local authority were not ‘unreasonable’ or ‘reprehensible’ as they were the result of oversights rather than bad faith.

The ordinary dictionary meaning of ‘reprehensible’ is ‘deserving censure or condemnation’ and derives from the latin verb meaning ‘rebuke’. I consider that each and every error identified in the local authority’s process deserves censure and could and should have been avoided. It was unreasonable to issue a placement application based on such material and, given the nature of the underlying errors, where the law relating to the standards to expect of evidence and analysis in adoption cases should be so well-known.

The starting point here is that without the numerous and egregious errors of the local authority a flawed placement application would have been avoided in the first place and there would have been no need to adjourn the November final hearing.

I do not consider that it was inappropriate to propose a plan for adoption and to seek a placement order, but the method by which it was pursued and applied for was riddled with avoidable error and failure to comply with important rules and requirements.

Counsel for the local authority also urged upon me the positive steps taken by the local authority since November, and that the local authority could be said to have needed to have taken some significant time to consider the issues arising at the November final hearing and so should only bear the costs of a single day. The first point is a good one, and the second fails given that the errors should never have seen the light of day or gone ahead uncorrected in the first place.

I welcome and bear in mind those positive steps outlined by the Director of Children’s Services, and consider that they go some way towards mitigating the local authority’s position. I have directed that the local authority should write to inform the court of the completion of each step identified by the Director and that I have mentioned in paragraphs 124-127 above.

I note that the pressures on the budgets of hard-pressed local authorities is very great, and that any costs order deprives this local authority of funds which can be used to assist children and families in need.

In the circumstances, and bearing in mind the overriding objective, although it can quite properly be said that this local authority was responsible for the unnecessary adjournment of a final hearing and the waste of those three days, I am satisfied that it is sufficient censure to point this out in the context of the criticisms of this detailed judgment, to take into account the positive steps that are anticipated will prevent such avoidable errors in future, and to require the local authority to meet the Respondents’ costs of one day of the November hearing. Costs will be assessed.

Finally, it will be noted that I have not named any single professional employed at this local authority. The local authority, quite properly and as required by case law, is identified. However, the problems appear to be systemic and wide-ranging. The identified problems touch each element of this local authority that has become involved in this case: social work, supervision, management, decision-making, legal advice, internal training, standards and checking systems, and ranging from social worker to lawyer to Director. Accordingly, it would be misleading and would attach too narrow a focus to name any single individual.

What this judgment is NOT, is a balance of whether long-term fostering is better than adoption for children generally. Instead, it is a careful reminder that in order to make a decision that involves permanent separation of a child from the parents and their family, the evidence has to be tested, it has to be accurate, it has to be checked, it has to be fair, and that processes, guidance and caselaw that are laid down to achieve that are ignored or bypassed not only at our peril but at the expense of justice and the children that we are working to help.

7 Comments

Posted in adoption, case law, judicial spanking and tagged adoption, agency decision maker, Child Permanence Report, flaws in agency decision maker process, Her Honour Judge Lazarus, HHJ Lazarus, LA lawyer responsibility for ensuring placement order application is properly constituted, qualifications for writing Child Permanence report, re, re a (a child flawed placement order application) 2020, wasted costs, wasted costs against local authority, wasted costs on flawed placement order. Bookmark the permalink.

Wasted costs orders against everyone!

Posted on March 5, 2016 by suesspiciousminds

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this. It raises some massive points of financial implications for solicitors, particularly when agreeing to take on a case involving medical or police disclosure. It places on them a financial risk that might very well not be worth taking, given the narrow margins on which businesses are currently operating. The Judge did not, it seems to me, take proper account of the public policy implications of this decision.

A public law case was listed for a 2 day finding of fact hearing. The Local Authority had been ordered to obtain police and medical disclosure. It appeared that some things which clearly by close reading of other documents were known to exist within the police possession had not found their way into police disclosure. When this came to light, the hearing had to be adjourned.

The Court then embarked on an exercise to see who was responsible and considered the making of costs orders.

Re L (Case Management : Wasted Costs) 2016

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/OJ/2016/B8.html

What makes it quite remarkable is that in most wasted costs cases what happens is that one side is assessed to be responsible for the mix-up or failure, and the other parties get their costs paid by them. Here, the Judge determined that whilst the Local Authority was chiefly to blame, all of the parties had to bear some of the blame.

Non-compliance with case management directions – who is at fault?

In this case,[2015] 1 FLR 1092 case management orders were made promptly (on day 14) for the disclosure of medical records and police records. The medical records were disclosed promptly save for the photographs. The failure to disclose the medical photographs was not identified by any party until 20^th January 2016.
The police responded promptly to the disclosure order but failed to disclose the audio recordings of the parents’ police interviews. The first approach to the police for ‘further disclosure’ was made by the local authority on 14^th October. The first time the lack of this material was raised by any other party was in an e-mail from the mother’s solicitor to the local authority on 2^nd November.
Who is responsible for these failings? Is the failure to disclose the medical photographs the responsibility of the hospital or of the local authority for not going back to the hospital to ask where the photographs were, or of the other parties for not raising this issue either with the local authority or with the court? Is the failure to disclose the audio recordings of the parents’ police interviews the responsibility of Leicestershire Police (who were ordered by the court to disclose ‘witness statements, interviews, photographs and medical reports in respect of the injuries’), or of the local authority (to whom the police were ordered to make disclosure and upon whom was laid the obligation of disclosing the police material to the other parties), or of the other parties for their delay in raising this issue either with the local authority or with the court?
Leicestershire police were ordered to make disclosure to the local authority. The local authority was ordered to disclose to the other parties the material received from the police. It was also ordered to obtain and disclose medical records. Is the scope of the local authority’s duty limited to forwarding on to the other parties the material received from the police and the hospital? In my judgment, it is not so limited. The local authority is not providing a postal service. It is under a duty not only to disclose what it receives but also,

(a) to consider with care the material received from the police and hospital;

(b) to satisfy itself that the disclosure complies with the terms of the relevant case management direction; if it does not comply then,

(c) to identify any documents or categories of document that appear to have been omitted;

(d) to contact the police/hospital promptly seeking immediate disclosure of the missing documents; and if disclosure of the missing documents is not made promptly then,

(e) to inform the court and seek urgent directions; and

(f) to keep the other parties informed.

Whilst the primary duty for obtaining and disclosing police and medical records rests with the local authority, it is clear from the rules to which I have referred that the other parties also have a responsibility. They, too, are under a duty to assist the court in the process of active case management and to inform the court of any non-compliance. With respect to police and medical disclosure there is a duty,

(a) to consider with care the material disclosed by the local authority;

(b) to satisfy itself that the disclosure complies with the terms of any case management direction relating to that disclosure;

(c) to identify any documents or categories of document that appear to have been omitted;

(d) to inform the local authority promptly with respect to any gaps in the disclosure; and, if the missing documents are not provided promptly,

(e) to inform the court and seek urgent directions.

In my judgment it is clear from the rules and authorities to which I have referred that these duties exist. They are a necessary part of the process of enabling and assisting the court to comply with its duties to further the overriding objective and to complete care cases within 26 weeks.
In the circumstances of this case I am satisfied that the responsibility for the failure identified rests primarily with the local authority. However, I am equally satisfied that the solicitors for the parents and the guardian also bear some responsibility.

Well, that’s all lovely in an ideal world, but do solicitors have the time to inspect each and every document with a fine-toothed comb, particularly in a case where counsel are instructed? They certainly don’t get paid for such a task.

So what happens then? Well, one sensible approach would be for the LA to pay some of the costs but not all of them, given that there were failings on the part of the other parties. That’s not what happened here.

The Court was actually considering punishing the solicitors involved by disallowing a share of their costs. The Legal Aid Agency were strongly suggesting that this was not a power open to the Court unless they were carrying out their function of assessing the public funding certificates by way of taxation (which would come at the end of the case)

Disallowing costs payable to a legally aided solicitor

Navigating one’s way around the labyrinthine complexities of the current legal aid scheme is a significant challenge. For present purposes it is necessary to have regard to the Legal Aid Agency’s Standard Civil Contract 2013 specification: General Rules (section 1-6) (July 2015 amendment), to the Standard Civil Contract 2013 specification: Family category specific rules (section 7) (July 2015 amendment), to the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 and to the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No2) Regulations 2014.
The solicitors for the legally aided parties contend that disallowing part of a standard fee payable to a legally aided solicitor pursuant to the provisions of s.51(6) is not simply inappropriate but that it is not possible. The basis of that submission is that the standard fee for legal representation is a fixed fee payable irrespective of the amount of work undertaken (subject to the right to ‘escape’ from the standard fee to which I referred earlier). It follows, therefore, as a matter both of logic and of law, that so far as concerns the costs of any solicitor entitled only to the standard fee there cannot have been any ‘wasted costs’. In this case, even if a solicitor entitled only to the standard fee undertook work on 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd January which would not have been necessary had the failure of police disclosure been identified at the time it arose, that solicitor will receive no extra payment for that work but will simply receive the fixed fee to which he or she would in any event have been entitled. A letter to the court from the LAA supports that argument,
The position would appear to be different so far as concerns the costs of a solicitor who ‘escapes’ the standard fee. As I noted earlier, that solicitor is entitled to be paid for the work undertaken on an hourly rate basis (the hourly rate being that prescribed in the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 as amended). In those circumstances it is clear that the argument set out in the previous paragraph does not apply. Even if the court does not have the power to make a wasted costs order against a solicitor entitled only to the standard fee (a proposition about which I am doubtful) there would seem to be no reason why the court could not make a wasted costs order against a solicitor who ‘escapes’ the standard fee.
However, the LAA raises a second issue and that relates to its power to act on an order made by the court under s.51(6) disallowing all or part of a legally aided solicitor’s entitlement to remuneration. In its letter to the court, the LAA asserts that,

‘The court could only disallow a solicitor’s costs under their contract with the LAA where the court is performing a detailed assessment pursuant to that contract (see paragraphs 6.37 – 6.38 of the Standard Contract Specification…) However, you could make observations to help the assessing authority (whether that is the LAA or the Court) in its assessment.

‘Where legally aided work falls under one of the Standard Fee Schemes, the LAA usually would have no choice but to pay the standard fees, unless the claim is not true, accurate and reasonable. The nature of the standard fee scheme is that in some circumstances a legal aid provider may receive a relatively high payment for not necessarily doing a large amount of work, whilst in the circumstances of a different case, the same standard fee may be considered to be relatively low. However, if you do make any observations on the amount of costs claimed and suggest that some costs should be disallowed, the possibilities, within the fixed fee scheme would be as follows:

1. Claims can ‘escape’ the fixed fee where, if paid at hourly rates the solicitors would be paid more (i.e. for Legal Representation, where costs on an Hourly Rate basis would exceed twice the Standard Fee, the solicitors would be paid at hourly rates). If in the circumstances of this case the solicitors have escaped the fixed fee and are to be paid at hourly rates, any disallowance (or recommended disallowance) of costs on assessment could reduce the amount payable to the solicitors;

2. The costs of the case can be disallowed in full, which would lead to a nil payment to the provider irrespective of the fixed fee scheme;

3. If the solicitors have breached some term of the contract, such as the requirement to carry out all contract work in a timely manner and with all skill and care, and as a result caused the LAA a loss (for example if a further hearing were required because of the solicitor’s default which has led the LAA to make further payments), then the LAA could set off the loss it has been caused against any payment due to the solicitors (i.e. the fixed fee they would be due to receive)’

Paragraphs 6.37 and 6.38 of the Standard Contact Specification provide that:

Court assessment

6.37 Except where:

(a) it is or may be necessary for the court to carry out a detailed assessment of costs payable to the Client by another party to the proceedings; or

(b) having regard to interests of the Client and public funds, the weight or complexity of the case and all the other circumstances, we consider it appropriate to direct that the costs be subject to detailed assessment,

your Claim for payment for Licensed Work will be assessed by us.

6.38 A direction under Paragraph 6.37(b) may relate to an individual case or to any class of case, identified by the level of costs to be assessed or otherwise. In cases where costs are to be subject to assessment by the court, detailed assessment proceedings must be commenced within the time specified in the Civil Procedure Rules.

If the LAA’s submissions are correct then that would seem to represent a significant narrowing of the scope of s.51(6) in a case involving a legally aided solicitor. It would mean that although under s.51(6) the court could order a legally aided party’s solicitor to pay another party’s wasted costs, the court would have no power to disallow any wasted costs incurred by that same solicitor.
I note that neither the Standard Civil Contract 2013 specification: General Rules (section 1-6) (July 2015 amendment), or the Standard Civil Contract 2013 specification: Family category specific rules (section 7) (July 2015 amendment) refer to the court’s powers under s.51(6). With all due respect to the LAA, it seems to me that the key to understanding paragraphs 6.37 and 6.38 of the Standard Contract Specification is to be found in the heading: ‘Court assessment’. Those paragraphs deal with the question ‘who should assess my costs’. Section 51(6) addresses a completely different issue. Section 51(6) provides a power to penalise a solicitor as a result of whose conduct ‘wasted costs’ are incurred (whether another party’s costs or his/her own costs).
It is my preliminary view that the court’s power to make a wasted costs order is not confined in the way suggested by the legally aided solicitors and by the LAA. However, I am satisfied that in this case it is possible to dispose of the wasted costs issue without determining those points. That said, in my judgment the LAA’s arguments do raise important issues which need to be authoritatively addressed.

This disallowing of costs to a publicly funded solicitor can easily move a case from barely profitable to making a loss for the firm. Not to mention the absolute headache with the Legal Aid Agency in recovering the money. Does anyone actually benefit from this at all? Haven’t we just spent a huge amount of money arguing about this issue? Not to mention any costs of a potential appeal, given the wider implications for solicitors across the country?

In a concluding paragraph, the Judge bemoans the increase in demand by additional care proceedings on the Court service and that no additional resources have been provided, whilst ignoring that the very same thing applies to all of the other parties to the case.

Conclusion

Statistics show that in recent months, nationally there has been a significant increase in the number of new care proceedings issued. Cafcass statistics show that over the ten months from 1^st April 2015 to 31^st January 2016 the number of new care proceedings issued was up by almost 13% on the previous year. During that same period The Family Court in Leicester experienced a 39% increase in new care cases – three times the national average. That increase in workload has not been matched by any increase in court resources. I make that point simply to underline the fact that court time is a precious resource. The court can ill-afford contested hearings being vacated because of the failure of one or more of the parties to comply adequately with the obligations placed upon them by the rules and by case management orders made by the court.
In this case I am satisfied that the solicitors for all four parties are responsible for the errors identified. All four were responsible for the wasting of court time and for the wasting of costs. I have identified wasted advocacy costs incurred by the legally aided parties amounting to £5000. I shall make a wasted costs order against the local authority requiring it to pay 50% of that sum, £2,500. I have also identified that the local authority has incurred wasted advocacy costs of £1950. I shall make wasted costs orders against the solicitors for the legally aided parties jointly to pay 50% of those costs (£975 i.e. £325 per solicitor).

Of course there were failings here, and it would have been markedly better had the Local Authority involved raised with the Court and the parties their concerns that the police disclosure was incomplete and missing important documents. Was this, however, a proportionate response to the difficulty? I am sure that all lawyers have experience of arriving at Court for a final hearing with time and money spent in preparing a case only to find that the case is double-listed or insufficient time is available – the parties in those cases – of which there were very very many, did not attempt to demand that the Court Service pay their wasted costs.

I note that the Judge here refers to the Norgrove report on Family Justice. Perhaps it is useful to bear in mind this passage of the report.

Our recommendations are intended to restore the respective responsibilities of courts and local authorities. But to change the law does not tackle the root cause

of the difficulties. This stems we believe from a deep rooted distrust of local authorities and unbalanced criticism of public care, as discussed in paragraphs

3.21 – 3.26 above. This in turn fuels dissatisfaction on the part of local authorities with the courts, further damaging relationships.

3.46.The result is that the relationship between local authorities and courts can verge on the dysfunctional. For the system to work better it is not acceptable for each

group to sit on the sidelines and criticise the other. A failure in one part of the system must be seen to be a failure of all. Courts and local authorities, and other

professionals, should work together to tackle this at a national and local level.

The report was published in 2011. When one reads the judgments over the last few years, 2011 starts to look like a golden era of co-operation and trust between the different stakeholders in Family Justice. I would gladly roll the clock back to 2011 in that regard.

[I would also deprecate the habit in this judgment of the use of (sic) for what are clearly utterly minor typographical errors in emails sent by the Local Authority – emails are documents which are typed in haste, particularly when trying urgently and desperately to resolve a pressing problem and (sic) is an uncalled for dig. I also note that the Judge did not apply the same (sic) standard to emails received from counsel, which had similar minor typographical errors. I also note that this case was listed for a fact finding hearing despite the allegations being substantially short of the Court of Appeal guidance as to when a separate fact finding hearing should be heard…]

16 Comments

Posted in case law, costs and tagged 2016 EWFC B8, costs, disallowed costs of publicly funded parties, his honour judge bellamy, Re L (Case Management :Wasted costs) 2016, solicitors duties to check disclosure, wasted costs. Bookmark the permalink.

Wasted costs

Posted on March 10, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

I think most practitioners are aware that this has been coming, and one has now hit.

HU v SU 2015

This was in private law proceedings, and the father was paying privately, so there actually were costs that were incurred. It relates to the inability of the mother’s team to get police disclosure (caused in part because the Legal Aid Agency had dallied in processing the extension to her certificate)

The mother’s solicitors had written to the Court and the father, but what they had not done was applied to vary the existing order about timetabling and to thus obtain an extension from the Court.

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2015/535.html

Here is the law on costs, as set out in Ridehalgh v Horsefield 1994 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/1994/40.html

“a) Had the legal representative of whom complain was made acted improperly, unreasonably or negligently?

b) If so, did such conduct cause the applicant to incur unnecessary costs?

c)If so, was it, in all the circumstances, just to order the legal representative to compensate the applicant for the whole or part of the relevant costs?”

That has always been considered quite a high test, because of the wording in (a). What HU v SU does is confirm the High Court’s view that post the cascaded authorities of the President in Re W (adoption order leave to oppose) 2013 (remember the contumelious attitude case?) http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2013/1177.html

that :-

It must now be clear and plain to any competent family practitioners that:

i) court orders must be obeyed;

ii) a timetable or deadline set by the court cannot be amended by agreement between the parties; it must be sanctioned by the court; and

iii) any application to extend the time for compliance must be made before the time for compliance has expired.

And thus that failure to do so amounts to improper or unreasonable conduct for part (a) of the Ridehalgh test.

In this particular case

He [Mother’s counsel]referred me to a chronology of relevant events. On 16.12.14 the mother’s solicitors sought a further extension to the mother’s public funding certificate. It was not granted until 13.1.15 and as a result of the delay in granting the same a letter of complaint was sent to the Legal Aid Agency.
On 7.1.15 they sent a letter to the father’s solicitors setting out that an extension of public funding was still awaited and requesting a one week extension for the filing of the mother’s statement (orders to be filed and served by 10.1.15). Crucially this letter did not set out that police disclosure had not yet been formally sought and no communication was sent to the court.
On 16.1.15 the mother’s solicitors wrote to the father’s solicitors and to the court notifying them that the mother’s public funding certificate had been extended, police disclosure had been requested and that the mother’s statement and schedule of findings would be filed and serve after police disclosure had been received.
I have a number of observations: i) the letter to the court was not noted to be for the attention of me or my clerk and it was incorrectly addressed. I did not receive it;
ii) the solicitors had decided that the statement and schedule would be filed after police disclosure had been received. No such linkage or sequential process was made or set out in the order of 15.12.14; and

iii) no application was made for an extension of time to file the police disclosure and/or the mother’s statement and schedule.
A further letter is sent to the father’s solicitors and the court dated 23.1.15. Once again the letter is incorrectly addressed and was not received by the court. Furthermore it merely apologised for the further delay in obtaining police disclosure and nothing else.
On 29.1.15 yet another letter is sent to the father’s solicitor but not to the court) setting out that the mother would not be able to complete her statement or a schedule until police disclosure had been received. No time for receipt of the police disclosure was given, however, on the same day the mother’s solicitors chased the Metropolitan police in respect of the disclosure sought.
By an email sent on 30.1.15 to the court, the father’s solicitors sought an urgent directions hearing. On the same day the mother’s solicitors sent a letter to the court and to the father’s solicitors. It once more asserted that the mother could not file a statement or a schedule without sight of the police disclosure. The letter did not: i) set out what steps had been taken to secure disclosure from the police;
ii) it did not set out any date or likely timeframe by which disclosure would be made by the police;

iii) seek an extension of time in which to file the police disclosure and/or the mother’s statement and schedule; and

iv) a revision of the timetable set by the court on 15.12.14.
At the directions hearing on 4.2.15 I directed the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to provide the disclosure sought by noon the following day. The mother was to file and serve her statement and schedule by 6.2.15 and the father his statement and schedule by 9.2.15. Those orders were complied with and it was possible for the fact finding hearing to proceed but at considerable cost to the father, who is privately funded, of legal fees incurred by attendance at the urgent directions hearing.
Mr Newton QC recognises the faults of his instructing solicitors. He characterises them as errors and oversights for which his solicitors profusely apologise, but which he submits did not pass the high hurdle of egregious conduct which merits being condemned by the making of a wasted costs order. He rightly reminds me of the considerable professional embarrassment which can result from the making of such an order.
In my judgment however the serial failures of the mother’s solicitors were elementary. The failure to seek the leave of the court to extend the time for compliance with the directions order of 15.12.14 is to be characterised as incompetence, the result of which could have been the adjournment of this fact finding hearing. Their actions, as set out above, are redolent of past poor practices which should no longer feature in private or public law family proceedings.

In this case, a hearing took place that was ineffective, because the police disclosure had not been obtained and thus the statement and schedule of allegations weren’t filed. That hearing did cost the father money, and he was entitled to recover that from the mother’s solicitors (not mother)

I am satisfied that the conduct of the mother’s solicitors is so serious and so inexcusable that I find that they acted improperly and unreasonably. Further the conduct caused the father to incur unnecessary costs. Finally in all of the circumstances I consider it just to order the mother’s solicitors to compensate the father for the whole of the costs he incurred by reason of the directions hearing on 4.2.15.
I shall make a wasted costs order against the mother’s solicitors. The father’s costs of the February directions hearing will be subject to a detailed assessment.

I hope that Court staff up and down the country are ready for a barrage of applications, because it is plain now that not making an application to extend a timetable (whether in private law OR public law) exposes the lawyer to a risk of a wasted costs order.

Even where, as in this case, that the delay was a result of external agencies (the police and the Legal Aid Agency), the fault still lies with the lawyer for not applying for an extension of time.

3 Comments

Posted in case law, costs and tagged applying for an extension of time, costs orders, hu v su 2015, late statements, re w 2013, ridehalgh, wasted costs. Bookmark the permalink.

“An unhelpful cocktail”

Posted on February 11, 2013 by suesspiciousminds

The interesting case of Re A (A Child) 2013.

The Court of Appeal dealt here with a case where some pretty appalling case management occurred with the appellants legal team, and whether a costs order should flow from that. They determined that in the absence of being able to show that costs had been incurred by the other parties for which they could be compensated, one could not make a wasted costs order purely as a punitive measure, no matter how awful the litigation conduct.

But it is worth looking at the litigation conduct, just because it is a dull day indeed when one isn’t interested when “I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres. Thy knotted and combined locks to part, and each particular hair to stand on end. Like quills upon the fretful porpentine…. “

Lo, the case is here:-

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2013/43.html

The appeal related to a serious finding of fact hearing in care proceedings, a significant number of fractures on a very young baby, where the Judge found that these were caused non-accidentally.

Some time after those findings, the solicitors representing the parents became aware of the decision in London Borough of Islington v Al Alas and Wray [2012] EWHC 865 (Fam) and legitimately considered the findings again in the light of that case, particularly whether there was an alternative medical explanation along the lines of vitamin D deficiency and rickets.

They sought leave to appeal from the trial judge, who refused.

They then applied to the Court of Appeal, primarily asking whether leave to instruct an expert to look at the case was required. The Court of Appeal considered the case, felt that a fresh expert assessment was desirable and granted that leave, then listing a Permission to Appeal hearing to take place after the expert assessment could be considered.

All of that is perfectly fine and proper.

[I blogged about that appeal hearing HERE https://suesspiciousminds.com/2012/11/22/more-on-vitamin-d-and-rickets/

In short, the Court of Appeal did not consider that the Judge at first instance was wrong, let alone plainly wrong, and that the medical evidence, including the fresh report came nowhere near substantiating a medical explanation for the fractures. ]

But this particular judgment comes about as a result of the Local Authority and Guardian feeling so aggrieved by the parents litigation conduct that they asked for a costs hearing.

This is why :-

6. a) At the first, without notice, oral hearing the solicitors failed in their duty to provide the court with full and frank disclosure of all relevant material. In particular the bundle submitted did not include the original fact finding judgment or the section of the trial bundle that included the expert medical evidence;

b) The court was misled by an assertion in the grounds of appeal that the solicitors had had to prepare the case in a limited time period, whereas the reality was that they had the papers in the case for 18 weeks prior to filing their grounds of appeal;

c) After the September hearing the solicitors failed to disclose any relevant and necessary information to the Local Authority and the solicitors for the child until 16^th October. The information withheld included a note of the 19^th September hearing, the letter of instruction to Professor Nussey, Professor Nussey’s report (which had been received on 3^rd October), the progress report sent by the parents’ solicitors to the Court of Appeal on 3^rd October in accordance with my direction and any detail of the extensive supplementary questions and communications passing between the parents’ solicitors and Professor Nussey;

d) Professor Nussey was not instructed in a manner that would comply with the Family Procedure Rules 2010, Part 25 and the associated Practice Direction governing the instruction of experts. In particular, the Professor was not furnished with a copy of the 2010 fact finding judgment and/or the expert medical reports upon which the judge had relied. Instead the Professor was, for example, provided with the parents’ solicitors’ critique of that judgment setting out some 26 points which they said supported a benign medical explanation for the fractures that had been detected;

e) Once Professor Nussey’s report was available to the parents’ legal team, a clear view should have been taken that there was no longer any prospect of achieving permission to appeal. The decision to press on and mount arguments which this court ultimately found were unsustainable, went beyond the bounds of pursuing a hopeless case and amounted to an abuse of the court process.

Ms Jo Delahunty QC, representing the child, supports the criticisms made by the Local Authority and seeks to stress the substantial degree to which, in her submission, the parents’ solicitors fell short of their duty to comply with the ordinary standards of transparency and co-operation required of those engaged in child protection proceedings in the Family Division. In particular, she points to the fact that the non-disclosure for nearly a month of information relating to the without notice hearing in September was not a result of inefficiency or incompetent administration, but arose from the deliberate assertion by the parents’ solicitors that the other parties were simply not entitled to any of this material unless and until permission to appeal is granted. She is also particularly critical of the way in which the expert was unilaterally lobbied by the parents’ legal team with, it is suggested, the aim of turning his initial adverse opinion into one which was more favourable to their case.

In addition to the criticisms made of the litigation actions in the period between 19^th September and 1^st November, both counsel for the Local Authority and counsel for the child draw the court’s attention to the stance taken by the parents’ representatives at this hearing. Mr Prest drew attention to what he regarded was the startling difference between the world view in relation to these matters taken by the parents’ representatives and the reality of the approach required by the Family Justice System. In similar terms Ms Delahunty submitted that, in seeking to explain their behaviour and avoid adverse criticisms, counsel for the parents’ solicitors, Mr Michael Shrimpton, in his skeleton argument, was simply not speaking in the same language as the lawyers representing the Local Authority and the child. In particular Ms Delahunty points to the fact that, rather than offering an acceptance of poor case management and an apology to the court, Mr Shrimpton’s skeleton argument seeks to meet each of the matters raised head on and to question their validity. For example the case for the parents’ solicitors, who are a well known Birmingham firm of family specialists, questions the validity and legitimacy of FPR 2010 Part 25 insofar as it applies to Family Proceedings at first instance and asserts that, in any event, those provisions have absolutely no application to a pending appeal. They assert that the instruction of an expert in the course of an application for permission to appeal may be undertaken in total disregard of the Family Procedure Rules and the practice otherwise applicable to a family case.

Let me just flesh that out, because it may be so peculiar that it does not quite sink in – they obtained permission to appeal saying that they had had ‘limited time to prepare their case’ (when they had in fact had 18 weeks – some people, not me, but some other people, might actually go so far as to say that this is not a generous interpretation or disingenuous, or misleading, but a straight downright lie)

having obtained the permission of the Court of Appeal to instruct an expert, the parents solicitors then don’t give the expert the medical reports AND Judgment in the fact finding hearing, but instead a sprawling 26 point submission prepared by them as to why rickets is the cause of the injury, they don’t try to agree a letter of instruction or include any questions that the other sides would like asked, they don’t initially disclose the report of that expert to the other sides, they try to get the expert to change his mind after seeing his report, and when all of this is highlighted to them, they argue that the Family Proceedings Rules don’t apply to appeals in, erm family proceedings.

I also like this bit – the parents solicitors, in another case (oh my god) had gone off to get an overseas expert without leave of the court and then (once it was favourable to rely on it)

In January 2012 the parents’ solicitors acted for different parents in an application for permission to appeal which is now reported as Re McC (Care Proceedings: Fresh Evidence of Foreign Expert) [2012] EWCA Civ 165; [2012] 2 FLR 121. In that case, without the knowledge of, let alone the leave of, the Court of Appeal, the parents’ solicitors obtained a medical report from an American paediatrician and sought leave to adduce it as fresh evidence to support a proposed appeal. In his judgment refusing permission to adduce the evidence, with which the other two members of the court agreed, Thorpe LJ said:

“14. There are many reasons for refusing this application. It does not begin to satisfy the conditions identified in the well known case of Ladd v Marshall [1954] 1 WLR 1489. It is a report which is deeply flawed in the manner of its production. The respondents to these proceedings were given no notice of the intention to go elsewhere and to knock on another expert door. No permission was sought from this court either to instruct another expert or to release documents from the case to that expert and such documents as were released were not comprehensive and were apparently partisan.

15. I would have absolutely no hesitation in refusing this application but I do want to emphasise that there is, in my judgment, an obligation on an applicant for permission, or an appellant who has obtained permission, to seek leave from this court before instructing a fresh expert and releasing court papers to that expert for the purposes of the hearing of either an adjourned application for permission or an appeal.

16. I would also emphasise the importance of the Guidelines for the Instruction of Medical Experts from Overseas in Family Cases, endorsed by the President and published by the Family Justice Council last month. They must by extension apply to appellate proceedings although the guidelines are of course written specifically in contemplation of proceedings at first instance.”

Mr X submits that both he and his instructing solicitors were unclear as to the meaning of those passages from Thorpe LJ’s judgment in Re McC. He tells me that they did not understand whether or not it was incumbent upon them to apply for the leave of the Court of Appeal before seeking to instruct an expert to provide a report for use in support of their application for permission to appeal. In their minds, therefore, the purpose of the 19^th September hearing was simply to seek the direction of the Court of Appeal on whether or not a full blown application for leave to instruct an expert, which Mr X tells me would have been on notice to the other parties, should be made.
I confess that I am at a loss to understand that submission and ask, rhetorically, how Mr X and the Solicitors Firm could fail to understand the words “there is …. an obligation …. to seek leave from this court before instructing a fresh expert”. The account given in the Notice of Appeal to the effect that the Court of Appeal decision in Re McC, from which I have quoted, had simply ‘expressed some sympathy’ with the view that leave to instruct an expert was required and that the decision had not by that stage been reported is, on the facts, plainly unsustainable.
The words of Lord Justice Thorpe are entirely plain and clear and, for the record, I regard his words as being entirely uncontroversial. The general approach, if not indeed the detailed requirements, of the Family Procedure Rules must, as Thorpe LJ holds, by extension apply to appellate proceedings.

So even though the firm of solicitors had been slapped by the Court of Appeal for getting a back door expert, and the Court of Appeal had given clear guidance on this exact point, they didn’t understand what it meant?

But all of that is okay, because the counsel representing them (although not a care lawyer, or indeed a family lawyer) is :-

a member of British Mensa and that he ‘by definition brings a Mensa-level intellect to the analysis of complex scientific and legal issues’

[If you are wondering, the quotation marks do indeed indicate that the Court of Appeal are quoting directly from counsel’s own skeleton argument. Yes, in a costs hearing in the Appeal Court, before Lord Justice McFarlane, this barrister put in writing that he was clever…. – not just in writing, but orally, and not just once, but “on a number of occasions”]

Oh. My. God.

If you aren’t cringing, writhing a tiny bit and dying a little bit inside on behalf of this man, you are a crueller person than even I am.

Mr X’s approach to these proceedings readily supports the submissions that I have recorded from both of the opposing counsel to the effect that the case he presents comes from a totally different ‘world view’ and speaks in a ‘different language’ from that of the local authority and the child’s legal team. Mr X is a brave and confident advocate who gives the strong impression of believing the cause for which he advocates. These various factors, high intellect, a lack of understanding of the justification for the approach taken in family proceedings and the brave championing of a cause, are, in my view, the unhelpful cocktail of elements which have come together in counsel’s presentation of the parents’ case in these proceedings. The local authority seeks to hold the parents’ solicitors responsible for this on the basis that they selected the particular counsel for these hearings. That submission is, in my view, not sustainable when it is clear, as it is, that the argument that became the focus of the application and was then sustained on to the second hearing was crafted by counsel and not by the solicitors. Mr X told the court that, following receipt of Professor Nussey’s report, the solicitors sought his advice on the future viability of the application for permission and that as a result of that advice the case continued. An indication of counsel’s faith in his clients’ case at the second hearing was the very surprising information, as reported to me during the hearing, that Mr X had approach Ms Delahunty outside court to enquire if the children’s guardian was going to support the application for permission to appeal.

My clear conclusion is that the manner in which the application for permission was pursued, after receipt of Professor Nussey’s report had removed from it any true validity, arose almost entirely from the wholly over optimistic judgment of counsel and not from any improper or unreasonable act or omission of the solicitors. By the end of the present hearing this understanding of events seemed to be shared by Mr Prest for the local authority when, after all of the submissions were complete, he made an application to include Mr X in the wasted costs application. I refused that application on the basis that the case had by then been heard and concluded on the basis that Mr X was not in the frame and that it would by that stage be oppressive to alter the focus of the application to include him.

Oh, I want to look at that again, let’s just do this one bit

Mr X is a brave and confident advocate who gives the strong impression of believing the cause for which he advocates. These various factors, high intellect, a lack of understanding of the justification for the approach taken in family proceedings and the brave championing of a cause, are, in my view, the unhelpful cocktail of elements which have come together in counsel’s presentation of the parents’ case in these proceedings

He was SO lucky to escape without a cost order.

It must have been fairly close as to whether the costs of the appeal hearing itself, were incurred as a result of advice which could not be sustained on the evidence. It was in part, I think, the fact that it was counsel’s clear advice and driving of the process that absolved the solicitors from blame in not abandoning their appeal once the expert they had instructed (and attempted to nobble) hadn’t supported them. If you can’t persuade an expert who you have blatantly tried to manipulate into supporting your case to support you, you really don’t have a winnable case and that would be the time to abandon the appeal. They didn’t. They pressed on. One can see from the previous blog and judgment just how much work went into that appeal hearing, particularly from leading counsel for the child, Ms Delahunty.

Of course, I could be wrong – perhaps the Mensa level intellect which counsel brought to bear in the case foresaw that as the Guardian and LA hadn’t included him in the wasted costs application, he could save his solicitors from a wasted costs order that was otherwise heading their way by convincing the Court that all of the faults were of his making. Perhaps he was nobly falling on his sword and was in reality blameless.

I would politely suggest that any counsel who are card-carrying members of Mensa to eschew the desire to flaunt this in front of the Court of Appeal in any future hearings.

[I’m sure 95% of Mensa members are witty, suave, urbane, good company, romantically successful, essentially happy, well-balanced, productive, helpful and fascinating, and that I have just been very unlucky in meeting the small proportion who spoil it for them…. I did also remove an “a bit like the American Express advert – it’s four letters too long” joke from this piece, but I’m sure you can work it out for yourselves]

If you are interested in instructing an overseas expert in care proceedings – perhaps you like paperwork, perhaps you enjoy the game of Russian Roulette that is incurring costs that the LSC might or might not underwrite, perhaps you just enjoy having telephone calls at 4.00am, there’s some guidance about how to do it, here :-

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/JCO%2FDocuments%2FFJC%2Ffjc_guidelines_for_overseas_experts_Dec2011.pdf

Comments Off on “An unhelpful cocktail”

Posted in case law, costs, experts, fact finding and tagged an unhelpful cocktail, cost hearings in court of appeal, Court of Appeal, fact-finding, fairness, instructing an overseas expert, instruction of an expert, instruction of overseas expert, mensa, Re A (A child) 2013, rickets, wasted costs. Bookmark the permalink.

If you must Hague, don’t be vague

Posted on December 27, 2012 by suesspiciousminds

The “too long, didn’t read” version – if you’re making an application in the High Court under the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985, bring your chequebook. And if you’re doing that, and are listed before the Honourable Mr Justice Charles, ring your bank manager first.

A discussion of the decision in the High Court of B v A 2012

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2012/3127.html

As readers of the blog will know, I often lavish praise on High Court Judges. I am fond of High Court Judges who have admirable qualities, such as clarity of thought, beautiful construction of sentences, being able to illuminate a difficult point with a clever analogy, or who are fundamentally kind and appreciate the human dynamics of the cases that appear before them.

I am not afraid of distributing praise in those circumstances – I would say fulsome praise, but I am mindful of the words of Inigo Montoya (no, not, “my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!” – the other one) “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”

Don’t ever say fulsome if you mean generously complimentary…. Or at least, not to a word-geek.

Anyway, this judgment is by the Honourable Mr Justice Charles and is bloody important for anyone who deals with abduction cases, both solicitors and counsel.

It would be fair to say that he was irked during the course of this judgment. He considered that insufficient care had been given both to the very serious nature of the application for a location order and to involve the tipstaff, and moreover to the inherent risks of doing so where the initial application was made ex parte, and the facts laid out before the Court were both partial and potentially partisan.

The Judge begins by setting out the reasons why making such orders is extremely serious

Tipstaff orders, and thus location orders, are (and are designed to be) powerful weapons in the search for children and the determination by the courts of England and Wales of issues relating to their future. They enable public authorities to interfere in the private lives of adults and children and carry serious penalties. It should be known to all judges who grant them that experience has shown that:

i) the travelling time of a flight to England can often allow for steps to be taken to meet the relevant adult and child at the airport on arrival,

ii) the orders can often be triggered when an adult comes to the notice of the police for some other reason (e.g. a motoring offence), and

iii) these possible triggers to an order mean that care needs to be taken to ensure that their enforcement (and so possibly an arrest and detention under them) only remains a possibility for as long as they are needed to fulfil their purpose.
The potentially serious impact of such orders means that those who apply for them and those who grant them should act with caution and due regard to the principles and procedures relating to the grant of relief on a without notice basis (see for example Young v Young [2012] 2 FLR 470 at paragraph 26 (ii) to (v). That case related to a passport order in a case seeking a financial remedy but the same approach is required to a case relating to the alleged abduction of a child or other proceedings relating to a child).

Nothing at all to disagree with there.

The Judge was perturbed that an application had been made that was not constructed as well as it ought to have been. He reminded the applicant’s counsel of a valuable previous authority B Borough Council v S & Anor [2006] EWHC 2584 (Fam) dealing specificially with how inappropriate it was for these applications to be made without notice without a great deal of care.

General comment on without notice applications

37. There is a natural temptation for applicants to seek, and courts to grant, relief to protect vulnerable persons whether they are children or vulnerable adults. In my view this can lead (and experience as the applications judge confirms that it does lead) to practitioners making without notice applications which are not necessary or appropriate, or which are not properly supported by appropriate evidence. Also there is in my view a general practice of asking the court to grant without notice orders over a fairly extended period with express permission to apply to vary or discharge on an inappropriately long period of notice (often 48 hours). It seems to me that on occasions this practice pays insufficient regard to the interests of both the persons in respect of whom and against whom the orders are made, and that therefore on every occasion without notice relief is sought and granted the choice of the return date and the provisions as to permission to apply should be addressed with care by both the applicants and the court. Factors in that consideration will be an estimation of the effect on the person against whom the order is made of service of the order and how that is to be carried out.

38. Inevitably on a without notice application the court hears from only the applicant. Good practice, fairness and indeed common sense demand that on any such application the applicant should provide the court with:

i) a balanced, fair and particularised account of the events leading up to the application and thus of the matters upon which it is based. In many cases this should include a brief account of what the applicant thinks the respondent’s case is, or is likely to be,

ii) where available and appropriate, independent evidence,

iii) a clear and particularised explanation of the reasons why the application is made without notice and the reasons why the permission to apply to vary or discharge the injunction granted should be on notice (rather than immediately or forthwith as in the standard collection and location orders) and why the return date should not be within a short period of time. As to that I accept and acknowledge that a reference to notice being given if practicable, or for a short period of notice (say 2 working hours or just two hours if a week end or holiday period is imminent), may often provide an appropriate balance to avoid a sequence of effectively without notice applications, and that in some cases a longer period of notice may be appropriate, and

iv) in many cases an account of the steps the applicant proposes concerning service, the giving of an explanation of the order and the implementation of an order. This is likely to be of particular importance in cases such as this one where emotional issues are involved and family members of a person who lacks capacity are the subject of the injunctions and orders. In such cases, as here, information as to those intentions are likely to inform issues as to the need for, and the proportionality of, the relief sought and granted

39. As to point (ii) I pause to mention that in my view it is surprising and disappointing how many times a without notice application for relief is made in the Family Division based only on largely unparticularised assertions by one side of serious allegations without any third party material to support them, or more generally the basis for the relief sought. I appreciate that in many instances there is a very real urgency and there will not be third party evidence of allegations of abusive behaviour that are readily available but in others there will be. A classic example, which occurs regularly, is that an applicant who seeks a return of children to his or her care fails to provide any third party evidence (e.g. from a school, a GP or records in their possession) to confirm that he or she is indeed the primary carer of the relevant children.

40. Guidance has often been given on the information to be provided and the procedure to be followed in seeking without notice relief (see at first instance Re S (a child) (ex parte orders) [2001] 1 WLR 211, [2000] 3 FCR 706, W v H (ex parte injunctions) [2000] 3 FCR 481 (by analogy X Council v B (Emergency Protection Orders) [2005] 1 FLR 341 and Re X (Emergency Protection Orders) [2006] EWHC 510 (Fam)) and in the Court of Appeal Moat Housing v Harris [2005] 2 FLR 551 in particular at paragraphs 63 to 69, and see also the notes to CPR Part 25 and the practice note now reported at [2006] 2 FLR 354).

41. Naturally I endorse that guidance and do not seek to add to it save to emphasise the points made above and to record my own observations that practitioners (a) too regularly do not follow and implement that guidance, and (b) by such failure show an insufficient appreciation of the exceptional nature of without notice relief and the impact it has (or potentially has) on the rights, life and emotions of the persons against whom it is granted.

42. As to this I acknowledge that the courts must take part of the blame for such failures by granting relief without notice in cases when (a) the guidance has not been followed, and (b) the impact on the person against whom the relief is granted could be considerable.

43. I add that additionally there is a need (a) to comply strictly with undertakings given at the time the order is made, and (b) to keep full and proper records of what is put before the court and said to the court. This should include a record of the times of the hearing so that a transcript can be more easily obtained. The availability of a transcript does not however reduce the duty of those applying for without notice relief to keep a full record of what the court was shown and was told.

Having quoted those passages, the Judge then indicated that he fully agreed with them and added to them

16. As well as endorsing the guidance set out above, there are three additional comments I would make:

(1) If information is put before the court to substantiate a without notice order, it should be the subject of the closest scrutiny and, if the applicant is not present in person to verify it, be substantiated by production of a contemporaneous note of the instructions. If that is not available, there may need to be a short adjournment to enable steps to be taken to verify the information relied upon.

(2) If additional information is put before the court orally, there must be a direction for the filing of sworn evidence to confirm the information within a very short period of time. If that direction had not been made in this case, the passport order would have been executed when the grounds for obtaining it were simply not there. That would have involved a gross breach of the defendant’s rights, quite apart from the court having been given misleading information.

(3) Lastly, leaving the scrutiny that the court should give to without notice applications to one side, it is incumbent on those advising whether such an application is justified to consider rigorously whether an application is justified and be clear as to the evidential basis for it.”

All very good points, I have been on the other end of a number of ex parte applications, and when you come to Court and outline what the other side of the story is, you often see the Judge’s expression become “Well, if I had known THAT…”

And these applications are of course, an immensely serious interference with someone’s liberty and free movement, and it is therefore important that a great deal of care is taken, both by the advocate presenting the case and by the tribunal determining it.

The long and short of this case was that the applicant’s representatives ended up not just not getting the order, but with something far, far, far worse than that. Probably the worst outcome you can ever get if you send counsel off to Court to make an application.

As mentioned in B Borough Council v S, I recognise that there is a natural temptation for applicants to seek, and for courts to grant, relief to protect the vulnerable, and, I add, to find children who it is alleged have been abducted. But this temptation, and the strong public interest in granting such relief, does not provide an excuse for failures to apply the correct approach in law to such applications. Indeed, if anything, the strong public interest in providing such relief and its impact on the subjects of the relief and their families mean that the correct approach in law should be followed and so the sound reasons for it, based on fairness, should be observed. Naturally this applies to all without notice applications, but it can be said to have particular importance when Tipstaff orders are sought and granted because they can found a deprivation of liberty without further court involvement, and they do restrict freedom of movement.

In my view, a practice of granting and continuing Tipstaff orders in Hague Convention cases as a matter of course and without insisting on properly prepared, particularised and updating evidence is to be deprecated.

AND

It seems to me that if such failures are to be avoided in the future there is a need for judges:

i) to refuse to make without notice orders if the established principles and procedures are not applied (I and some other judges do this), and

ii) to treat such failures as negligent and thus as a foundation for the exercise of discretion to make a wasted costs order.

Sadly, the first course alone has not resulted in general improvement and it is to be hoped that when the second course is added it will. But, I acknowledge and confirm that this promotional effect is not a ground for making the order rather it is a potential product of making such an order applying the approach set out in Ridehalgh.

And more chillingly for advocates

Generally, a litigant has to take the consequences of such behaviour and look to his advisers for recompense but I have concluded that the application for costs against him should be refused, because:

i) the point that the shortcomings in the presentation of his case by his advisers is a reflection of endemic failures of family practitioners and courts means that his conduct should not be categorised and reprehensible or beyond the band of what is reasonable (see paragraph 80 hereof), and

ii) the policy and merits arguments referred to in paragraphs 82 to 84 support no such order being made.

Thus it wasn’t the client who was going to be hit for costs, but rather his representatives

Also, in my view:

i) the merits and policy arguments referred to in paragraphs 82 to 84 above, and

ii) the point that the father’s solicitors are unfortunate to be singled out when their failures to comply with the principles and procedures relating to without notice applications are widespread in the Family Division and were not picked up by a number of judges, warrant reductions in the costs to be awarded as wasted costs.

Taking the above into account, in respect of the costs schedule up to the hearing on 10 September 2012, I make a wasted costs order against the father’s solicitors in the sum of £18,000 (to include VAT).

The Judge had actually knocked quite a bit off the costs to reflect that this was a warning shot across the bows and that the particular advocates involved had not been worse in their failings than many other cases. But implicit in that is “woe betide”

I suspect that there may well be some family barristers who are having gentle chats with their clerks about whether the cab rank rule means that they need to take cases where they are liable to be personally stung for costs of £18,000 plus, and frantic calls to the RCJ list office to determine tribunals might well be being made.

I do wonder also whether sufficient weight has been given here to the very nature of the applications – a parent believes their child has been abducted, the child is missing, information is sketchy and develops piecemeal, and often the most strikingly important details emerge during the course of the day and are not necessarily reduced to affidavit form in advance. I also wonder how much better such cases will be presented in the High Court when those advocates who are skilled and accomplished at presenting them no longer want to bear the personal risk of doing so…

Comments Off on If you must Hague, don’t be vague

Posted in case law, costs and tagged B v A 2012, child abduction, child abduction and custody act, cost order, counsel to pay costs, hague convention, high court, location order, solicitor to pay costs, tipstaff, wasted costs, what you do not smell is iocaine powder. Bookmark the permalink.

suesspiciousminds

Tag Archives: wasted costs

Adoption as orthodoxy

However, what analysis there was emerged as incomplete, partial, unsupported by sufficient evidence or reasoning. ‘Permanence’ was lauded above all else, with little rationale or substantiation or research to underpin that claim and the assumptions and assertions made.

– The ADM’s sole reason appears to amount to an orthodoxy or set policy based on age alone and showed the local authority had failed even to consider long-term foster care as an option at all.

The issue of a placement application should not become a rubber-stamping exercise, but a rigorous examination of whether the legal requirements for such a serious application have been met

Wasted costs orders against everyone!

Wasted costs

“An unhelpful cocktail”

If you must Hague, don’t be vague

Follow Blog via Email

Nonsense, family law, sarcasm. Not always in equal proportions

Recent Posts

Follow me on Twitter

Archives

Top Posts & Pages

Categories

Blogroll