Success against proceedings for late RTA Protocol final paymentsAYMENTS

Taylor Rose discourages first steps in commencing Part 7 proceedings for damages.

Taylor Rose Law has taken the first steps to discourage the practice of commencing Part 7 proceedings for damages where a defendant is slightly late in making payment of damages or costs agreed under Stage 2 of the RTA or EL/PL Protocols.

In Coggon v Irvine [2014] the cost payment was marginally late and the claimant commenced Part 7 proceedings with particulars of claim setting out a claim for damages as if no agreement had been reached.

The claimant alleged that the defendant was in breach of the mandatory terms or the Protocol by not making payment within the required time. The defendant argued that is always an abuse of process to commence proceedings for damages where they have already been agreed, and drew a distinction between the position for interim agreement and final agreements under the protocols.

Where there is a failure to make payment within the prescribed at an interim stage, the protocols provide for automatic exit. There are no equivalent provision where final payments are late.

The court held that the claimant had acted unreasonably and disproportionately and limited the claimant to protocol fixed costs pursuant to the power in CPR 45.24.

The judgment is unlikely to be the final word on the issue but is a stronger pointer to claimants that issuing proceedings in this way is not appropriate even when they are understandably irked by late payments.

For more information please contact our Peterborough office on 01733 333 333 or click here for more information on our legal costs service.