New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Second counsel allowance

Legal area

Court

17 Nov 2023

CHEN v GENERAL FINANCE LTD [2023] NZHC 3258

Citation

[2023] NZHC 3258
Court

High Court

Applicants failed and no exceptional circumstances justified departing from the ordinary rule; respondent entitled to costs on a 2B basis; claimed steps and amounts otherwise conformed to the High Court Rules; second counsel was justified on urgency and significance grounds but the correct allocation under sch 3 item 27 is 50% of the principal counsel allowance (here 0.125 of a day), resulting in a reduced second counsel amount; total award was adjusted accordingly to $16,471.75 payable by the applicants to the respondent.
21 Aug 2023

DAMIN LUN v YONGCING KONG [2023] NZHC 2256

Citation

[2023] NZHC 2256
Court

High Court

The Court allowed a 2B second counsel allowance given the objective complexity of conflict of laws issues, held the plaintiff's expert witness fee was reasonably necessary and recoverable under r 14.12 despite being of limited significance to the judgment, refused to entertain claims or set-off of costs from the Chinese proceeding for lack of jurisdiction, and declined to award additional costs for the costs memorandum.
19 Dec 2022

NADAN v SHARMA [2022] NZHC 3516

Citation

[2022] NZHC 3516
Court

High Court

Plaintiff succeeded on the application to remove the trustees; the defendant maintained positions and arguments that lacked merit and refused a Calderbank offer, thereby unreasonably increasing time and expense — accordingly costs on a 2B scale were awarded to the plaintiff with a 25% uplift from 26 July 2022; no allowance for second counsel was justified.
25 Jul 2022

TRACPLUS GLOBAL LIMITED v V2TRACK (2022) LIMITED [2022] NZHC 1788

Citation

[2022] NZHC 1788
Court

High Court

The Court awarded band C for filing the interlocutory application (allowing three days under r 14.6(3)(a) because preparation reasonably exceeded the two-day band C allowance), band B for written submissions and other specified steps, allowed costs for second counsel due to the urgent and technical nature of the interlocutory hearing, rejected the defendants' contention that their opposition lacked merit, and ordered specified costs and disbursements payable to the plaintiffs.
21 Feb 2022

PARKLANE INFRASTRUCT LIMITED v LU TRUSTEE LIMITED & ANOR [2022] NZHC 233

Citation

[2022] NZHC 233
Court

High Court

Trinity succeeded on the key practical issue after appeal (caveat should not extend beyond Lot 3), is entitled to costs on a 2B scale; the Court declined uplift for rejected settlement offers because offers were conditional, included third party undertakings or broader commercial terms and were not unreasonably rejected; no allowance for second counsel; limited allowance for memoranda (two days) resulted in 2B costs of $16,730 and disbursements $110.
17 Dec 2021

BLOMFIELD v MR A & THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL [2021] NZHC 3550

Citation

[2021] NZHC 3550
Court

High Court

No allowance for second counsel was made because the proceeding was of ordinary complexity and lacked exceptional features required to justify a second counsel award; costs were fixed on a 2B scale with disbursements in the sum specified and enforcement of that award was stayed to permit parties to resolve set-off issues about prior costs awards.
6 Nov 2019

TAYLOR v ASTERON LIFE LIMITED [2019] NZHC 2897

Citation

[2019] NZHC 2897
Court

High Court

The stay application was the substantive issue for costs; given the plaintiff had limited success on minor technical points the defendant was entitled to costs but subject to a modest reduction (approximately 10%), resulting in an award of $5,108 inclusive of disbursements to the defendant.
17 Sept 2019

SETTLERS CRESCENT PARTNERSHIP v IAG NEW ZEALAND LTD [2019] NZHC 2341

Citation

[2019] NZHC 2341
Court

High Court

The court awarded category 2B scale costs for the four day hearing including an allowance for second counsel but declined to apply any uplift; it rejected the plaintiff's cap based on an abandoned two day hearing and fixed disbursements at the factual and expert amounts proposed by the plaintiff, resulting in a total award of $162,214.76 to the defendant.
27 Apr 2017

SPARKS v IMMIGRATION ADVISERS COMPLAINTS AND DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL [2017] NZHC 797

Citation

[2017] NZHC 797
Court

High Court

The applicant achieved only modest success that did not outweigh the principle that costs follow the event; the Authority was entitled to costs on scale 2B reduced by 10% to reflect limited success by the applicant, and no allowance was made for second counsel. Accordingly costs of $19,870 plus disbursements $352.86 were ordered against the applicant in favour of the Authority.
4 Apr 2017

CAROLAN v NZ REAL ESTATE CREDIT LTD [2017] NZHC 630

Citation

[2017] NZHC 630
Court

High Court

The Court awarded respondents costs of $7,191 and disbursements of $249.67 after holding that most steps were properly categorised as Schedule 2B, declining a 2C categorisation for preparation of the opposition, allowing one claim for the memorandum of 2 February by analogy to written submissions, allowing attendance at the aborted Fogarty J hearing as a recoverable step, and permitting a 50% second counsel allowance; costs of claiming costs were ordered to lie where they fall.