Where litigation is brought primarily to advance private interests, including substantial damages claims, the fact that the case raises novel issues of general importance and may clarify the law for others in similar circumstances is insufficient to characterise it as a 'test case' or 'public interest litigation' justifying departure from the usual costs rule. The extent to which the public interest predominates over the private benefit, or vice versa, will inform the exercise of the costs discretion, and where the unsuccessful plaintiff stood to gain significant private benefit, that will ordinarily weigh heavily against departing from the usual rule.
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