Translation fees for trial are recoverable, rules Court of Appeal

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/translation-fees-for-trial-are-recoverable-rules-court-of-appeal/5116649.article

13 July 2023

Translation fees for trial are recoverable, rules Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has ruled that interpreter fees can be recovered from defendants, in a landmark judgment affecting many other cases stayed pending a decision.

Lord Justice Stuart-Smith ruled in Santiago v Motor Insurers’ Bureau that the interpreter’s fee should be regarded as a disbursement and was therefore recoverable.

The court regarded the case as distinct from Aldred v Chan, where the Court of Appeal disallowed the cost of obtaining counsel’s opinion in addition to the fixed costs allowed. In that case, Lord Justice Coulson had ruled that the claimant’s age and lack of English were not features of the dispute itself and so the costs of counsel’s opinion were not to be regarded as a disbursement.

That decision has led to some courts treating translator costs in general in the same way and preventing them from being recovered. […]

 

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/ruling-opens-way-to-challenge-as-fixed-costs-loom/5116749.article

24 July 2023

Ruling opens way to challenge as fixed costs loom

A Court of Appeal judgment on translation costs could give lawyers a means of opposing the imposition of fixed costs where access to justice is under threat.

Costs lawyers say they intend to use last week’s ruling in Santiago v Motor Insurers Bureau to argue that certain cases should be exempt from fixed recoverable costs after an extension comes into force in October.

The rules give judges discretion to allocate more complex cases valued at under £100,000 to the multi-track, where fixed costs will not apply. The court will have the power in exceptional circumstances to reallocate a claim, stating that claims should head to the new intermediate track ‘provided there are no additional factors which would make the claim inappropriate’.

That caveat will alert lawyers following Santiago, a case concerning the recoverability of interpreter fees, which Lord Justice Stuart-Smith considered ‘through the prism of access to justice’. […]