Rule 56 Assessment of costs

Every detailed assessment of costs shall be carried out by one or more costs assessors.

The receiving party and the paying party will, where appropriate, be notified by the costs assessor of the date of the assessment.

Where one of the parties so requests or in the circumstances specified in the relevant practice direction, the costs assessor may make a provisional assessment of costs without the attendance of the parties.

The costs assessor must notify the parties of the outcome of a provisional assessment and, if a party is dissatisfied with the outcome and points of disagreement cannot be resolved in correspondence, the costs officer must appoint a date for an oral hearing.

Any request for an oral hearing following a provisional assessment of costs must be made within 14 days of the receipt of the decision on the assessment.

In this rule a “costs assessor” means a costs officer, a Costs Judge (a Taxing Master of the Senior Courts) who has been appointed as a costs officer and the Registrar.