StaffCo Direct Limited v Ashley Burton & Ors

MRS JUSTICE JOANNA SMITH: 1 This is an application for costs following a consent order, that I am going to make and that has been agreed to by the parties, in relation to a disclosure application made by the claimant on 21 December 2021. For present purposes I do not need to go into the history of that application. 2 I am now being asked to make an order for costs in the claimant’s favour in light of the fact that the defendant has now agreed to provide disclosure, almost in the terms that were sought in the original application. 3 In my judgment, the appropriate order is that the claimant should have its costs of the disclosure application. 4 Much of what was sought by way of disclosure has been consented to, as Mr Mitchell rightly says, and my overall impression, from the documents that I have been taken to during the course of argument, is that the defendant has not been as forthcoming as he should have been in complying with the orders for disclosure already made against him. Furthermore, there has been correspondence from the claimant’s solicitors seeking disclosure, which has gone unanswered. 5 Some disclosure has now been volunteered, on 10 January, and that has led to the consent order that has been made. 6 In the course of his submissions, Mr Islam-Choudhury criticised the claimant’s approach to the application as being “heavy-handed” but, given the admitted lies on the part of the defendant in the proceedings, it is perhaps unsurprising that the claimant has remained very suspicious of the defendant’s conduct. It does seem to me that there was an obvious need, in those circumstances, for the defendant to have been rather more cooperative in volunteering information than he has been to date. 7 In the circumstances, I will make an order in the claimant’s favour in relation to costs. __________ CERTIFICATE Opus 2 International Limited hereby certifies that the above is an accurate and complete record of the Judgment or part thereof. Transcribed by Opus 2 International Limited Official Court Reporters and Audio Transcribers 5 New Street Square, London, EC4A 3BF Tel: 020 7831 5627 Fax: 020 7831 7737 [email protected] This transcript is approved by the Judge