Court of Appeal confirms that litigant in person can't
recover costs of a foreign lawyer
CPR r46.5 provides that, where the court makes a costs order in
favour of a litigant in person, the litigant in person can recover
(amongst other things) "payments reasonably made by the
litigant in person for legal services relating to the conduct of
the proceedings".
The issue in this case was whether that included payments made
for the services of a foreign lawyer. The Court of Appeal held that
it did not. The legal services had to be "provided by or under
supervision of a lawyer" and it was said to be implicit that
the lawyer "must be someone who can be expected to be
competent to supply services "relating to the conduct of the
proceedings" in this jurisdiction": in other words, a
lawyer qualified in England and Wales.
