Where a plaintiff splits litigation by obtaining interlocutory judgment on some claims and proceeds to trial on remaining claims, and fails on all issues at trial, the defendant is entitled to a costs order for the proceedings generally. The plaintiff retains the benefit of costs orders on the successful interlocutory applications, but cannot claim a general costs order for the proceedings based on the earlier interlocutory success. Issue-based costs orders remain undesirable where they would give rise to complexity and dispute.
The full text is available to signed-in members.