Most people will have heard of Andrew Mitchell MP and the ‘Plebgate’ controversy when he was alleged to have called a police officer at the gates to Downing Street a “ f*****g pleb”.  Following the Sun publishing an article about this, Mr Mitchell took a defamation action.

Mr Mitchell’s lawyers failed to file a Costs Budget with the court within the stipulated 7 days before the Case Management Conference (CMC). Indeed they only produced the Costs Budget on the day of the CMC. They explained that there had been problems with staff shortage. The Master disallowed the Costs Budget (which amounted to some £500,000!!) and ordered that they should only be paid for the court fees! An appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed – see: Andrew Mitchell -v- News Group Newspapers Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 1537.