A growing number of claimant solicitors are taking out
disbursement funding loans and seeking to claim the interest of
doing so from defendants. These claims should be challenged given
that such interest is not usually recoverable.
The first question to consider is whether the claim for interest
is as interest on costs or interest as costs.
Interest as costs
Interest cannot be claimed as costs. In Hunt v RM
Douglas (Roofing) Limited (1987) TLR, 23, Purchase, LJ
confirmed that '...funding costs have never been included
in the category of expenses, costs or disbursements envisaged by
the statute and RCS O.62' and went on to add that to include
them would 'constitute an extension of the existing category of
"legal costs"...' .
